Walls or Windows

Spring Break 1992, at 16 years old I had the opportunity to travel to Mexico with a high school youth group. None of us really knew what to expect from the trip other than people telling us it was going to change our lives. On day 1 of travel, the big yellow school bus pulled into a rest area along the I-5 freeway just after dawn so we could have breakfast. Admittedly I was quite spoiled as a kid, so I was a bit disappointed when breakfast turned out to be cereal with warm powdered milk. Warm. Powdered. Milk. What the heck? Who does that? Well, only a few hours into the trip and my life was definitely changed. I will never, ever drink warm powdered milk again.

After driving for many, stinky hours in the bus, we were just a few miles outside Ensenada, Mexico. With eyes wide in disbelief, I stared at the landscape filled with makeshift tents of cardboard, tarps, plastic, and any other trash that could be used for shelter. It’s a pretty common scenario for youth groups and church missions to visit impoverished nations to bring assistance for food, shelter, medical care, etc. I don’t want to minimize these trips at all, as I do believe great things can happen when we choose to get out of our comfort zone to help others. I wonder though, what do we actually see when those same people are camped at our border hoping for refuge and opportunity? Do we see them behind a wall keeping out the illegal foreigners, or do we look at them through a window, where we can see them clearly as they are in their beautiful humanity? How do you view foreign immigrants and refugees? Do you see them as a troublesome, political issue that needs tighter immigration laws, higher walls, and tougher foreign policies? Or, perhaps you can look a bit deeper to see their infinite worth as humans made in the same image as you and me. What prejudices or implicit biases do you feel in your gut that it’s time to call out and let go of?

I am deeply convinced that nationality does more to divide than it does to unite. Sure we need border security, whatever. I certainly don’t pretend to know everything about immigration laws, refugee status, and all that legal stuff, but I do know that if we don’t see them as human, don’t recognize their beauty and value, we are completely missing the call to love our neighbors. Love has to be the foundation of foreign policy, the catalyst for any humanitarian aid, and the window through which we see our neighbors across the street and around the world. Have you been seeing people through walls to keep them out? Try looking through windows instead, to see people of all nations, tribes, languages, and identities with love and kindness. Better yet, let’s open the door to them to have a conversation and let them into our lives. If we choose it, that will truly change our life and theirs. And you don’t even have to drink warm powdered milk to do it.