The issue of refugees is on people’s minds. Here’s what God has to say about refugees:
Moving from one place to another is a difficult transition. Moving by choice is filled with emotions of apprehension, sorrow, and hope. Moving under duress is sometimes frightening and often debilitating.
When the duress is expected, moving can be like moving by choice: filled with emotions of apprehension, sorrow, and hope. When the duress is sudden—caused by natural changes (like floods and earthquakes) or caused by other people—the force of the event forever affects the people who must move on, and these people require sympathy from others to adjust to their new reality.
A refugee is a person who has lost connection with family or societal identity. Even a person who chooses to move to a new area or country can be filled with anxiety and fear, like the anxiety and fear felt by a person who moves under duress. What matters is how they are received in their new places of residence.
Refugees deserve to be welcomed to their new places of residence, even if the places are temporary. People are people no matter their characteristics, and both sides—the refugees and the settled people—deserve kindness. Refugees must release deeply held attitudes and customs. Settled people must willingly offer assistance and guidance with the ways of their society, without being superior or condescending. The process of accepting one another is steeped in willingness to learn and accept.
Refugees are natural results of the changing world. Their lives are equal. No one is better than them.
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