Seeing the pictures of the Ukrainian refugees on the Polish border is heartbreaking. The families with just a suitcase totally reliant on strangers for food and shelter. It’s cold in Poland. Some people just wanted a chair to sit and rest. They don’t know where they are going or how they are going to get there and what will happen once they do. And then the interviews with the Polish people who are thankful that they can provide some help and comfort in the middle of the most difficult situation that the Ukrainians are still trying to figure out how it even happened.
Could this be happening?
It has been happening for a long time. There is an endless list of refugees that have been fleeing worn-torn countries for as long as I can remember. And our job is to welcome them.
I’m on a thread with the knitters I met in the Netherlands and they are readying their homes for refugees. They are busy knitting them blue and yellow hats.
I have first-hand knowledge of immigrants from Central America who fled from their county to avoid being killed at the hands of gangs. These people walked across the desert with nothing and went to work in the fields for next to nothing pay, no rights but still paid taxes and social security.
Refugees have no choice. They don’t want to leave their homes just like we don’t want to leave our homes. But they don’t want to lose their lives either. I’m happy to be the one offering hospitality rather than the one seeking it.
May God give strength to all those who are fleeing for their lives this day and resources to those who can welcome them, comfort them and help them resume their lives.
Contemplative Knitting 
Amen!
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