It’s so tempting to look away from the current border crisis. It’s uncomfortable and politically divisive. It feels too big and too hopeless. But this past week a photo of a father and daughter who drowned trying to cross the Rio Grande and enter the US as asylum seekers grabbed our attention and our hearts. It put a human face and story to the numbers at the border. May we have the courage to look at the photo of Oscar and Valeria, to ponder their plight and that of all migrants at the border, and to develop a God-honoring perspective on the whole situation. In this episode of All Things we consider a Biblical view of ourselves, a Biblical view of migrants, what Scripture has to say about loving the sojourner and the vulnerable, and we ponder how we might prayerfully respond. May Jesus not say to you or to me, ““For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me… Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me” (Matthew 25: 42-43; 45).

Helpful links:

A grim border drowning underlines peril facing many migrants - Associated Press

The U.S. Migrant Detention Centers Explained - Relevant Magazine

Fleeing North in the Full Armor of God - Christianity Today

‘There Is a Stench’: Soiled Clothes and No Baths for Migrant Children at a Texas Center - NY Times

The Global Refugee Crisis Hit a Record High. The US Welcome for the Persecuted Is at a Record Low - Christianity Today

worldrelief.org

World Relief Challenges Americans Not to Look Away, Help the Children in Detention at Our Border - World Relief

A LAMENT FOR THE U.S. CHURCH’S RESPONSE TO IMMIGRANTS - Sojourners

Books to Consider:

Welcoming the Stranger: Justice, Compassion & Truth in the Immigration Debate

Seeking Refuge: On the Shores of the Global Refugee Crisis

The New Odyssey: The Story of the Twenty-First Century Refugee Crisis