Morning Meditation: Immigration and Welcome

Lord of every exile and every homecoming,

When Jesus stood in the Nazareth synagogue and unrolled the scroll of Isaiah, He did not speak in abstractions. He named the poor. He named the captive. He named the brokenhearted. And then He sat down and said, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." Not tomorrow. Not in theory. Today.

So we bring before You the mother who crossed a river in the dark with her children strapped to her back, who arrived in a strange town where the street signs meant nothing and the church doors were closed. We bring before You the family sleeping four to a room above a laundromat, learning a new language one humiliation at a time, wondering if anyone in this country sees them as fully human.

The Anabaptist tradition has always known what empire would rather forget — that every border is drawn by human hands, but every person is made by Yours. Our spiritual ancestors were themselves refugees, fleeing persecution across Europe, hiding in basements and barns, dependent on the mercy of strangers. We of all people should recognize the knock at the door.