Immigrants like us|Christian Century

This is one of those articles that I've read in bits and pieces. It is a very long article and I'm not even sure I've read all of it--or if I have, I've forgotten most of it. What I know for certain is that I've not read it from beginning to end without stopping. However, yesterday I sat down at my husband's desk to use his laptop and the article was opened to the last page. While I waited for his computer to come up I began reading. The last few paragraphs made me want to look at the whole article again more closely.

It is my firm conviction that today's discussion on immigration (even by Christians) is most often approached from a political point of view, without consideration of the spiritual aspects and implications detailed in scripture. This article seems to begin to speak to that spiritual void.

Here are the last few paragraphs of the article by Lillian Daniel. The link to the entire article is below the quote. My heart breaks that the DREAM bill has not passed.

"In my church the American flag stands below the cross, as does the denominational flag. That hierarchy reminds us that when we meet our Maker, we will be rewarded not for how well we patrolled our borders, nationally or theologically, but for how gracefully we crossed the divides that separate one group of human beings from another. In Christ there is no Greek or Jew, nor male nor female, nor slave nor free.

Ultimately we will not be judged for how well we followed the changing and sometimes unjust laws of a temporary nation-state the borders of which, from the perspective of eternity, will seem fluid and movable. Instead, we will be judged on how well we followed the teachings of Jesus in Matthew 25:35-36, 40: "For I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you made me welcome . . . in so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me."

The spirit that compelled a young Eng?lish?man to sign up for duty as a cabin boy and cross the ocean for a better life is the same spirit that compels a college graduate from a foreign country to work as a hotel housekeeper, cleaning toilets and making beds, in order to send money back to her family.

That mighty spirit is a gift from God that is distributed equally and without partiality in the hearts of all God's children. Ultimately it will triumph over cruelty and division, as long as we who believe in it stand up for our brothers and sisters and for their dreams and for their families. Let freedom ring."

Immigrants like us | The Christian Century