“PEOPLE ON THE MOVE ”

            

Where did your family come from? Delving into the stories of our forebears (Goldilocks had but three), I find mine just didn’t stay put. Born a 4^th/5^th generation South Australian I found my Manchester Ridings ancestors probably arrived there from Yorkshire centuries before. Some of my German ancestors (Nitschke) were in Poland with one line (Gehling from Gael-ing) settling via Denmark from France. These were Huguenots, and I have several other ancestors like them who scattered to parts of England (Coe from De Caux) and Ireland (Bunn from Le Bon).

No matter where I looked I recognised refugees who are now part of my becoming who I am. Ancestors of mine emigrated from religious persecution, political turmoil, war, financial hardship, hunger, and from even family disputes. They kept moving from places where they were not safe, taking risks in finding new homes in strange lands. What are the stories of your families?

When I look at the Christmas Bowl appeal, I still see desperate people forced onto the move. Some yearn to be able to return to their damaged homes to rebuild their shattered lives. Some are stranded for generations in makeshift slums we call displaced persons camps. Others flee far away to find fresh places where they are allowed to settle.

On the poster this year we can read the plea, “Show you care this Christmas” and one of the calls is to help Burmese refugees have enough to eat until it is safe to return home. You can be assured that our gifts are not wasted. Like some of our ancestors, people today have no choice but to find safety somewhere and to survive until they can again stand on their own feet.

We will hear again the story of Jesus born in a stable that was away from home. We will remember how Joseph and Mary took him even further away because he was in danger. We see this story re-enacted not just in our Nativity plays but also lived out, as we read this, in the lives of countless children who are at risk by staying where their families used to call “home”.

There are reasons why people cannot stay put. When you look at it people have been on the move since humans came into being. I am sorry to say that they have not always been welcomed by those who have arrived before. History is littered with hard examples, and still goes on too close to home even as I write this. But when we do welcome those coming to us with our support, we are welcoming Jesus himself because he remembered all too well what it was like.

Show you care this Christmas! God has done so through Jesus.