Toys of War

The Escape to Egypt

The Flight Into Egypt -- Jean Francois Millet

 Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said,
get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt,
and remain there until I tell you;
for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.’
Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt,
and remained there until the death of Herod...
Matthew 2:13-15a

Christmas is coming and many parents and grandparents will be buying dolls, sets of Lego "people," action figures. They are gifts which will be enjoyed through the season, and if we're lucky beyond. In our peaceable society it doesn't matter how violent the world any of these figures represent.

What if the action figures were created by the children themselves, and they depicted the grim realities of the war they were living through? What if they told the story of being refugees, fleeing from harm?

 Andrew Berends is a filmmaker who lives in Brooklyn, New York.  He is now in production on a film called Madina’s Dream which is about girls he met in a refugee camp in South Sudan who occupy their time making clay figures telling their story of flight from danger. They have seen family members murdered and other children die of hunger:

To reach Nuba, I passed through Yida Refugee Camp across the border in South Sudan. In the camp, I met the three girls...the 11-year-olds Madina, Howa and Aziza. The girls had fled the war with their families, winding up with 70,000 other Sudanese refugees in the sprawling camp. Days in Yida are long and offer limited opportunities for schooling, so the children have found creative ways to entertain themselves. When I met them, they were making open-air dollhouses filled with intricate figures they had sculpted from clay. They filled the houses with beds, pots and stoves, all remnants of their former lives.

Take a look at this video:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/11/opinion/toys-of-war.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=photo-spot-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

When we hear the story of the flight of Jesus' family from Bethlehem to Egypt  during this time of year we might consider the situation of so many children in our world who live in the midst of turmoil which displaces them from home and takes them across borders. The story of Jesus' birth can be gritty and real, if we allow it.

We can all pray this Christmas for refugees, especially children. Who knows our Canadian government might get into the spirit of generosity and welcome some of them to our shores.

Thoughts?