A letter to a newborn child, requested of Desmond Tutu by the girl’s father, July 2016:

Dear Juliet

Hello, little sister.

You don’t know me. I am a very old grandfather from South Africa nearing the end of my journey on earth while your journey—on another continent many miles away—is just beginning. We may never meet on earth, so I thought to send you a secret. Well, it’s not really a secret because we should all know it. So I don’t mind if you tell everyone else.

Did you know that all people belong to one family, the human family? That although we may look nothing like each other, live in separate homes, practise our own cultures, subscribe to different religions—and some of us have more money than others—we are all sisters and brothers of God’s family?

You and I, and everyone else, were born with the same purpose. For love, for goodness and for one another.

God Bless You.

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu

Cape Town, South Africa