Truthfully, you cannot nod your head as the US responds to blast a chemical plant in Syria without also recognizing that the reason Syrian people began to flee 2 years ago was a valid one. Perhaps now we understand a little better?
I met the kids you see pictured here in the distance during one of my visits to Idomeni on the Greek border. At its apex, there were 15,000 people living there in grossly inhumane conditions. Perhaps today, we begin to see how even that situation seemed more optimistic than staying.
As I journey through Lenten season, as I look ahead with expectation to a Sunday morning in the distance, as my family journeys next week back to our home in Bulgaria … my heart calls upon the Lord for those who are still stranded somewhere between tragedy and trauma and looking for home.
I do not know where these children are today. I suppose I will never know their destination until I cross my own border between earth and eternity. There are other children and families that have remained connected to us. They are my parish.
As you make your own journey towards hope this coming week, will you pray for Syria? Will you open your heart to the foreigner? Will you recognize your own reality as a refugee in their story of exile? We are all refugees, you see. We are all seeking sanctuary. We are all journeying towards home.
Come. Let us journey together.
teanna sunberg 