Emigres

As our nation continues to debate and discuss border walls and immigrants we find ourselves fearing the terrorist, encumbering the asylum seeker, and shunning the refugee. Tragically, we separate children from parents in our response to those caught in dire circumstances.

Today's post is a poem from my Masterworks Series. It offers insight from the point-of-view of a refugee family.

Emigres

Our Lord, allow us to welcome the stranger and treat them kindly. Allow us to see that the stranger can benefit us. Allow us to see that the stranger can benefit those from where they came.  Ameen.

                            

                                             ~ Sarah Joseph, OBE*

   

It seems we are always looking back to Egypt.

We suffer our kings;

Tentatively we give them admiration

While doing our best to stay out of their way.

Our rulers give us hope

That God will bless our land,

Yet more often they are the reason

We hope for better days.

Leaving Bethlehem by night

With my wife and son,

We cast ourselves upon

The mercy of the open road.

Fleeing one tyrant

For memories of another,

We take refuge in the land

That was abundant in wealth and oppression

For our forebears.

Rootless and homeless

We have only family for support

And the strength of our hands

For a day’s wage.

Living as refugees,

Moving from overlord to overlord,

We will make our way.

Longing for home and

Grieving for a land

Once filled with life and song

Now turned deadly.

Trees offer their fruits

As we stop to rest,

Reminding us that the earth is gracious

Even when the land is stolen and divided by kings.

Sojourning in a strange land

We will hold on to the goodness of the earth

Waiting for old kings to die;

Waiting for the time of singing.

In the meantime

We will join with the downtrodden

And dwell with the outcast

Seeking refuge together.

Perhaps we will find a place

In the shadows of the empire

To sing our songs of hope.

                                                           ~ CK

*    *    *

* From Sarah Joseph's BBC Radio Prayer for the Day, 23 July 2015

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Image: "The Rest on the Flight into Egypt" at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Artist: Gerard David (Netherlandish, 1460-1523)
Medium: Oil on panel
Date: c.1510


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