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Jesus, the Refugee

Someone has said, "It's not the millions that move us, but the one." The crisis in Syria has certainly proven this true. Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson captured the words of Syrian children stranded in Lebanon: "My home is all broken in Syria," said a little girl. "A rocket came and hit my father in the head," said another. One boy drew a picture of a bomb.

We are living in an age of an unprecedented movement of people, a global exodus. Today’s stranger is the sojourner, the refugee, the immigrant. Millions are displaced around the world, some 60 million people. Sometimes fear rises in us when we talk about welcoming refugees. But our fear is not founded in fact, and steals our compassion.

People across the world are following the example of Jesus, who once set out on the refugee trail himself. Almost every day I hear about a church, neighborhood, or community opening their arms to a refugee or immigrant family. We are at our best not when we turn our backs, demand our rights, and talk of building walls but when we welcome the refugee, the sojourner, the immigrant, the stranger. We are at our best—as a people, a church, a community, and a nation—not when we fear but when we love.