Not too long ago, on a small vessel embarking from a strange land across the sea, a group of religious refugees huddled together in their wooden ship that would either prove to be their casket, or their way to freedom. Cold, hungry, desperate, and dying of starvation and disease, they ventured into the unknown. “Will the land we are going to be fertile? Will the people welcome us, or become our enemies? Will we be able to start a new life there? Will we actually be able to find freedom there?” No one knew the answer to these questions, but the alternative of turning back to the homeland, ridden with religious strife and persecution, was not an option. No, anything was better than that. This was worth the risk.
As the ocean ferry landed on a beach on the north-eastern coast of the large continent, the rag-tag band of blacksmiths, teachers, lawyers, clergy, educated and uneducated, mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, daughters and sons, disembarked. To their surprise, there were other inhabitants in this land, and these inhabitants actually proved hospitable, not hostile. In fact, history tells us that these young refugees wouldn’t have even survived their first winter in the new world without them. The natives taught them to plant and farm, and how to live off the land. They showed them kindness.**
The story goes that these young refugees, though they would endure many hardships, would go on to become doctors, lawyers, teachers, and businessman. They would go on to build a new life for themselves and their families. They would go on to prosper. And eventually, they would go on to found what has been called one of the greatest nations on earth, the United States of America.
You see, history shows us that WE (those of us descendent from this first group, which happened to be mostly white), were the original refugees***. And our ancestors left their homes in pursuit of the same freedom and hope that our brothers and sisters across the world are now pursuing within the safety of our borders. Were there a few knuckle heads among them? Probably. But overall, that small band of survivors were looking for a new hope. A new life. And they found it here on the shores of America, thanks to the help of it’s inhabitants. Without them, the world would have lost the beacon of freedom that America has striven to be for the past few centuries.
Today, thousands of refugees are fleeing religious oppression and violence in their homelands. They are doctors, lawyers, artists, scientists, educators, businessman, and family members. They are human beings, created in the image of God. And, according to our Constitution, equal as all other men. And they have the right to pursue life, liberty, and happiness just like we did. America, are they so different than us? Let’s take a moment and remember where we came from, and thank God that the original inhabitants were more hospitable than we’ve proven to be these past few years. Without them, we wouldn’t be.
As i’m wrapping this blog up, i’m reminded of another Middle-Eastern family fleeing for their lives as refugees. They were Palestinian Jews. Darker features and olive-skinned. Coming from a place of poverty, they seemingly wouldn’t add very much value to Egypt, the new land to which they were fleeing. And yet this family, from all appearances insignificant as the land from which they came, carried a child that would one day change the world. Jesus of Nazareth, once Himself a refugee, gave His life to the broken, hurting, and fleeing around Him in a way that has literally transformed hundreds of millions of us. I have to wonder how His time as a refugee helped shape Him.
America, it’s time to wake up. It’s time to stand up. It’s time to be the good news and the beacon of hope that we claim to be.
My fellow Refugees, it’s time to welcome Refugees.
**Sidenote**- This could actually be considered only partial history. But it’s what we are taught in our history books. The real story is that after the first ships came over and were welcomed and helped, the rest came over as conquerers and wiped out or displaced the native population over the next 2 centuries in order to found and expand this country. An important distinction, but this blog is intended to communicate through a widely accepted story.
***Sidenote*** This is assuming that most people in my audience are white Americans descended from Europeans. People of “Native American'” descent, and some Hispanics, were actually present in the land before our European refugee ancestors arrived.
