Germans welcome Ukraine refugees
When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien.
The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
Leviticus 19: 33-34
Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.
Hebrews 13:1-2
Early next week a Syrian refugee family will arrive in Trenton, Ontario to begin a new life. They have been without a permanent home for years and the diligent sponsorship group has anticipated their arrival for six long years. There has been one impediment after another and a couple of the family's children were born stateless, in citizenship limbo.
I've thought about their ordeal and about the thousands of Afghans who served Canada during the war yet were left behind, desperate for a new home and with their lives in great peril. While the Trudeau government made big promises about bringing Afghans here, only about 20% of the total promised 40,000 have arrived and the window of opportunity has closed for many trapped in the country.
This has been front of mind this week as Canada and other countries have promised to waive the usual interminable red tape to give shelter to Ukrainian refugees. The humanitarian crisis for Ukrainians is obvious and I fully support Canada's response. Still, I can't help but wonder whether this has to do with the colour of their skin, that they are Europeans, that the country is predominantly Christian.
Today I found an article in the Globe and Mail newspaper by Mellissa Fung, who reported from Afghanistan and was held captive for four weeks, a traumatic experience. The title of the article is All refugees need to be treated with equal compassion. She writes about her response to what is happening in Ukraine and what it conjures for her:
The last time I felt this kind of sadness and fear was last August, when the Taliban rolled into Kabul and took Afghanistan back under their control. Girls were no longer able to go to school. Women were forced to hide at home. Desperate families had to make their way to Afghanistan’s chaotic airport or the border with Pakistan, to try to flee the inevitable oppression they knew they faced if they stayed. There was no fight and no bombs, as the government quickly capitulated – but there was still so much fear.
Extending hospitality is vital to the Judeo/Christian tradition and the bible, both in the older and newer testaments, is explicit about welcoming the stranger. The New Testament book of Hebrews says that some of those strangers are angels, with no reference to the colour of skin or any other pedigree.
I'm so impressed that countries which border Ukraine are welcoming the displaced in their hundreds of thousands. In Germany people are crowding train stations to offer places to stay as they disembark. Would we be this generous, I wonder? I hope we can live up to our promises to Ukrainians and to others around the world.
We are aware of the blessings or beatitudes in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. I share some earth stewardship beatitudes in today's Groundling blog groundlingearthyheavenly.blogspot.com/2022/03/earth-
Berlin train station
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