World Refugee Day

Today is World Refugee Day.  For refugees a “day” of being lost in between the life that was and the life hoped for.   All identities merged into one – a refugee.

One day without warning -- a baby buried in the rubble, a daughter forced into slavery, a son lost at sea, a mother separated from her children, a father stripped of all earthly belongings -- lives endangered, vulnerable and exposed.

The refugee crisis is not new. Our broken world has erupted in war and violence for as long as history remembers. One refugee story continues to blur into  another. The world sluggishly moves to recognize a crisis.  Humanitarian aid comes but often too little and too late. The church rallies people to give food and clothing.  Donations are given safely from the comfort of our homes.

But do we truly see the hollow despair in the eyes of the mother whose baby has just been ripped from her arms?  Do we hear the anguish in a father’s voice who has no power to keep his daughter safe?  Do we feel the pain of the boy who has just lost his mother and father in a split second?

To see, feel and hear makes each life count, every refugee exist.  This is our humanity. To support, equip and mend allows each refugee to move beyond despair and toward a renewed life. This is our duty.

“How precious are your thoughts of me, Oh God.  How vast is the sum of them!”  

~ Psalm 139