We in this country, in this area, have been blessed so abundantly. Oh, I am not discounting those who are suffering, who are fighting desperately to keep a roof over their heads, but, generally, we live in relative safety and with some safety nets available.
What must it be like to be so afraid for your family, for your children, that you pick up and leave everything and everyone you know and love, and do whatever it takes to get to a foreign country where you don’t understand the culture and don’t even speak the language?
Joseph packed up Mary and the baby Jesus and fled to Egypt in the middle of the night – a distance of 300 miles or so. According to https://www.costtotravel.com/how-far/from-merida-venezuela-to-texas-united-states, 2664 miles is the average travel distance between Venezuela and Texas. If you could walk at the speed of 3mph, it would take 27 days 17 hours. How desperate does one have to be to do this?
In churches, I have heard the United States referred to as a Christian nation. REALLY? If being a Christian means having a relationship with Jesus Christ and being His hands and feet on earth, how does this line up with stopping people at the borders? “Come unto Me ALL you who are weary and heavy laden” (Matthew 11:28) – All. I’m not advocating for an open border, and I’m not pretending to have all the answers, but to stop desperate people at the border or even to send them back to the hell they came from – how does that line up with being Christian?
Micah 6:8: He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?
Especially amongst conservative Christians, there seems to be a lot of flag waving and pledging “allegiance to the flag and to the Republic for which it stands – one Nation under God, with liberty and justice for ALL.” ALL. Liberty and justice for ALL. And then, by these same people, there is support for sending refugees back where they came from. How does that all line up? I don’t get it.
Matthew 25:41-43: Then He will say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave Me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, I was naked and you did not clothe Me, I was sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’
There are so many, within 50 miles of here, who are hungry, thirsty, strangers, in rags, sick – and we who live in abundance are saying it’s not our problem – keep them away, we don’t want them.
What’s Jesus going to say about that?