Giving shelter
Headlines have grabbed our hearts with stories of Europe’s growing migrant and refugee crisis. One way we can all respond is with prayer that is selfless, unbiased, and universal.
Prayer that acknowledges the intelligent and complete care provided for all by our infinite Father-Mother God removes the fearful belief that compassionate acts will benefit some people at the expense of others. When we look to God for a clearer understanding of His ever-presence and limitless love for all His creation—His spiritual ideas, embraced in His allness and goodness—we are establishing in our thoughts a spiritual foundation for constructive actions to help refugees, and to help those helping them.
In our almost 30 years of marriage, my husband and I and our two sons have shared our home and our lives with almost two dozen people from a wide variety of circumstances, and it has enriched us immeasurably. Was this hard? Did we have to give up a lot in order to make room for others? We did make changes in our lives to do this, but our home became a multilayered blessing because of it.
One of my favorite experiences was with a family of refugees we befriended. My older son brought home a new boy from school, and we soon became friends with his family. Their story of how they came to the United States is dramatic. Exiled from their war-torn country after the husband was kidnapped, the family was forced to leave with only the clothes on their backs.
By the time we met, they had dealt with immigration issues and had resettled and acclimated to a whole new culture. The mother was doing an amazing job of caring for her four children in the two-bedroom apartment they were given. Among other things, they were able to find familiar foods that brought comfort to them all.
We realized we had a rare and wonderful opportunity for giving our support and sharing our love with this family. As we reached out to these dear ones, I prayed with several ideas that I found inspiring. One is that we are all children of God (see Romans 8:16 ). This gave us an immediate connection with one another and put us on equal footing. There was no fear, anxiety, or feeling of strangeness as we all embraced a new opportunity for friendship. The understanding that God cares for all of His children impartially ruled out of us any sense of burden or heavy obligation, and it awakened a sense of newness and adventure for us.
Whenever we have the opportunity to give, we are also getting the opportunity to grow in grace, wisdom, and experience.
A statement about home on page 58 of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures was so very appropriate. Mary Baker Eddy writes, “Home is the dearest spot on earth, and it should be the centre, though not the boundary, of the affections.” This characterized the loving home the mother made for her children while they waited for word about the husband. And it also described how my own family was expanding our sense of home as we learned about our new friends’ culture, their hopes, and even their cuisine, and helped them adjust to their new home. Although the lives of our two families were very different, we found we had a lot in common, and we built on that common ground.
We talked with the mother about Christian Science, and the family attended church and Sunday School with us a couple of times. The mother and I often prayed together. By going beyond our familiar boundaries of home, we were all blessed.
A few months into our friendship, when I got a job that would mean a move to the East Coast for our family, a line from a psalm came to thought: “God setteth the solitary in families” (Psalms 68:6 ). I knew that God’s grace and comfort are continuous, and I gained confidence that blessings would continue to unfold for both our families. No one could be isolated or outside of God’s care—including the husband of the refugee family—and I could trust God to take care of us all.
In fact, a week before we were to leave, we heard that the husband had been found and was on his way to the US. The day we left was the day he was reunited with his family.
Whenever we have the opportunity to give, we are also getting the opportunity to grow in grace, wisdom, and experience. Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health, “Giving does not impoverish us in the service of our Maker, neither does withholding enrich us” (p. 79 ). Our family certainly found this to be true. Nothing was taken away from us in this experience, and much was gained. Welcoming others and giving comfort, joy, and companionship certainly gave us a more meaningful and loving sense of home—one that embraced a much wider circle of caring than we had ever imagined possible.
Whether or not we actually open up our own homes to others, our prayers can add to an increasingly joyful sense of new possibilities in our duty to love our neighbors as ourselves. As nations and communities look for solutions to the migrant and refugee crisis, prayer establishes a foundation for finding mutually beneficial ways of providing shelter, leading to constructive and innovative solutions that enrich and enlarge everyone’s lives.
