On Terrorism & The Refugee Crisis -

This morning when I logged onto Facebook, I saw that several treasured friends had shared this, 

so I clicked on the article, and expected to skim through, after all, I see hundreds of photographs online 

every single day. I study them, I make them, I stare absently at them. It's my job, my world. 

But I couldn't skip through these. I was arrested by the little details, the ages, the stories. 

I look at these pictures and see little children I know and love: The curls on one little 1 yr old head.

The chub on a little arm, the way another lies down. My heart is alarmed and angry that we can't protect them better,
that their parents can't, because they can't, even though that's the ache in their heart. 

Children. Little Children. With no safe place to sleep. 

To look: "Where Young Syrians Sleep" 

Shortly after spending a good half hour looking through the pictures, I went to make myself some tea.

I stood in my quiet, safe little kitchen, in my safe little house on my safe little street in my safe little neighborhood

 that lives just down the road from my safe little church in my safe little town,

that resides in my safe little state in my safe (not so little) Country. 

I watched the breeze blow the little oak in the backyard,
just like I have millions of times since we planted it in our safe little yard that I grew up in.
I watched a green anole climb leisurely up the side of our porch, really the only place that is scary around here
or when anything fears for their lives is when I let Lucy Mae out on the back porch and she runs after the lizards. 

Last night my legs were aching, so I took a leisurely lavender bath.
Then I had a delicious 9 hours of sleep upon a comfy mattress with a feather pillow, three sheets of covers,
air conditioning bursting with clean air, a fan swirling on high, and a happy little dog curled into the small of my back.

This morning I had breakfast, with that amazing Kerrygold butter that was on sale this week at Publix,
and Mama bought some as a treat. And then I boiled some very clean water and made some tea. 

How safe and sheltered we are here. How ridiculously blessed and how uncommonly well and fair.

Talk about a huge reality check!! My Instagram looks shallow now. So does my thankfulness level. 

Yesterday, I read this: "The World is Scary as Hell. Love Anyway." 

The best I've read so far on terrorism and the refugee crisis. 

and from a political standpoint: "In Defense of Refugees" 

and Relevant Magazine posted this earlier in the week:

 "What the Bible says about How to Treat Refugees" 

from Desiring God: "Building His Church in a Refugee Crisis"

I'm not here to preach. It's been overwhelming to even touch on the refugee crisis
because it's been going on for so long, and there's so much we don't know, and the need is SO HUGE. 

I'm just here to share a few articles and how I felt this morning when I realized how safe my world is,

compared to how very unsafe many others are, and how I wish I could make their world safe too. 

"He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you,

giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners,

for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt." ~ Deuteronomy 10:18-19 

With love from my heart,

~ Jean Marie ~