The glory of this day will be capped by the most historic Senate swearing-in ceremony ever

The real celebration of January 5, the day the voters of Georgia saved the nation by handing the Senate to Democrats, can finally happen today. January 6 nearly erased the joy of that day, but now we get it back. We get it back in the best possible way when, at 4:30 Wednesday afternoon in the Capitol. That’s when Vice President Kamala Harris, the first woman, the first Black woman, the first South Asian person will swear in Rev. Raphael Warnock, Georgia’s first Black senator and Jon Ossoff, Georgia’s first-ever Jewish senator. At the same ceremony, she will swear in Alex Padilla to fill her vacated Senate seat, California’s first Latino senator.

Rev. Warnock preached at his home Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on January 10, the first Sunday after the historic run-off election. “Whoever would have thought that in the state of Georgia we would see the people of Georgia rise up and send an African American man who grew up in public housing, the pastor of this Ebenezer Baptist Church where Dr. King preached, and a Jewish young man, the son of an immigrant, to the US Senate?” Warnock said. “You must know that this is a glimpse of God’s vision of a more inclusive humanity that embraces all of God’s children. I’m just grateful to be a part of this. I’m just grateful because I just want to serve, I just want to be a vessel, I just want to be an instrument, I just want to be a prism of God’s glory so that God’s glory can shine through me,” Warnock said. He also spoke to the violence of the insurrection.