Nearly eight years ago, we brought home this little boy.
He was a “refugee” in a sense. He had fled his home for safety. He may not have fled the country, but to a three-year-old little boy, what’s the difference? His world was turned upside-down. He had already been in three different foster homes after being removed from his birth parents. He was in need of refuge. He was in need of a home.
Take a look into his eyes. Do you see the emptiness? This was just days after he came to live with us, when we took him for his first haircut. And this was the biggest smile we could get out of him. He was a shattered little boy.
Because of my thoughts on refugees coming into our country, I’ve been called racist, xenophobic, fearful, a bad example of Christianity, and more in recent days.
As I noted in my post on refugees, I believe the topic to be highly complicated and void of a simple answer. But the refugee crisis isn’t just occurring with those coming into our country, it’s occurring right here within our own borders. Except with this refugee crisis, there are no adults. There are no terrorist threats or security risks. There are just innocent children, broken because of the choices made by those they rely on most.
At one point, we had five kids, ages five and under. We had to close our doors to more children in order to be able to properly take care of those who were already in our home. We needed to make sure that each child we chose to welcome in was provided for. We could have kept taking foster children in, but Superman and I knew our limits, and we didn’t believe God was calling us to adopt more. We knew taking in more kids would only be a detriment to our other children. And our commitment to the kids we had wasn’t just a once-a-month donation, it was lifelong.
I believe the same applies with our nation. I would absolutely love for our country to be an oasis for every hurting person fleeing persecution, but I understand that we also need to make sure that the needs of our citizens are met as well. We cannot rescue every heart. We cannot provide for all of the hurting people in the world.
Government is barely needed when the church is active and growing and fulfilling its role by serving the “least of these.” Unfortunately, a lot of people put the government in place of religion, thinking there will be a great leader who brings hope and change. The change we need is micro, not macro. It is changing the community you live in. It’s changing your family and your friends and the strangers that you come in contact with.
This is the face of a “refugee” in our home now:
Do you see the joy? Do you see the freedom? I desperately want that for everyone. I want everyone, regardless of race or religion to experience that. But I can only open my home to so many hurting people before the weight of the burden crushes our resources and only hurts those we were trying to help.
Friends, I’m not xenophobic. I’m not anti-refugee. I don’t have a hardened heart, and I’m not blind to the needs of hurting people. But can we all please, please stop pointing fingers at each other and saying how we’re not doing enough? Can those of us who can do more right now step up and carry more of the burden? Can we give those who are fully tapped out the grace of knowing they’re still loved and supported and that we appreciate everything they are doing to “love the least of these?” Because the only way we are going to effectively change the world is by being a light and serving in the simplest forms. Each of us, in our own little ways, to the best of our abilities.
Selena says
? and ?! I got all teared up reading about your son, but so happy at the end seeing his picture with that little baby goat (?) Thank you for sharing this. I absolutely love your correlation between how you had to eventually close your home because you couldn’t help everyone. Such a beautiful, living example. Regardless of where people stand on the refugee crisis, I think this is a valid point to consider. Thank you!
Pam says
This is such a hard issue. I know what my faith says to do. We need to be fiscally smart, but are all these people, world wide, our brothers and sisters.
Jan Johnson says
The refugee issue is so tough for me. I see both sides. I brought home two little “refugees” of my own from China, and their lives are so different than if they had not come here. But I also see what you are saying about being able to take care of the ones already here. I just lost Medicaid because my kids turned 19. I have heart failure, a severe arrhythmia, some very bad teeth, diabetes, asthma, a cataract, a skin cancer and other more minor ailments.
I can no longer get my medications or afford to even go get prescriptions for them. I lost my independent contractor job due to my illnesses and inability to do my job. My 19-year-olds are going to college on-line and working around 15 hours a week. With a few dollars I make on ebay this is our income. Should the government bring on all these refugees when I, who was born here, no doubt die faster because I will not be able to get some expensive heart drugs I am on and maybe not the others either?
But maybe that makes me selfish because in all our poverty in an old rotting trailer we still have food and shelter and freedom from intense fear. I have wept and prayed for the Syrian refugees often. And Jesus did indicate to take care of those in need. It is so hard to know what is right.