WHAT A GIFT

"Your gifts will make room for you and bring you before great men." --Proverbs 18:16

Blind Tom Wiggins seated

The picture above is of Thomas Wiggins, also known as 'Blind Tom'. He was born into slavery in the 1800's. Since he was blind, his master wanted to kill him because he thought of Tom as useless when it came to performing the tasks and demands of a slave. It was nothing short of a miracle that his slave owner decided against doing away with Tom, and he allowed him to wander around the plantation during the day. It is believed that Tom heard the sound of a piano in the home of his master one day, and he quickly showed interest. It is accounted that he only had to hear a piece of music once, and then he could play it on his own perfectly the first time. Since he was able to master the piano at a very early age, Blind Tom began to perform all over the word at the age of just 8 years old. He even had the opportunity to perform for Mark Twain and the Queen of England. Over the course of his lifetime, it is said that he learned approximately 7,000 pieces of music and earned his owner a considerable amount of money. Blind Tom went from being considered as useless to becoming a famous performer of his time. This is a true example of how one's gift can make room for them...no matter the circumstances.

Katherine Johnson (Encyclopædia Britannica)

Katherine G. Johnson. If you are not familiar with her name right off, you may be more familiar with the movie "Hidden Figures". That's right. This is the woman that Taraji P. Henson depicted in the movie. Katherine Johnson was born in 1918, and her mathematical abilities became quite noticeable even as a little girl. Mrs. Johnson was a math wiz--no, she was actually a math genius. By the age of 14, she had completed high school, and she was only 18 when she graduated from college at the top of her college class in the subjects of math and French. If you have watched the movie, you are aware of the fact that she eventually landed a career at NASA. Through a series of events, Katherine had the grand opportunity to use her mastery math skills by calculating the trajectory of the 1969 flight of the Apollo 11 space shuttle to the moon. This is the same event that is accredited as the first spaceflight to help land humans on the moon. In 2015, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Despite the fact that Katherine G. Johnson was an African American woman in a Caucasian and male dominate field of work, her gift also made room for her and brought her before greatness.