“GRANDMA, I’VE NEVER SEEN this picture before. Where are you?” Becky pulled a black and white photograph from the bottom of a box. A much younger version of her grandmother was pictured along a shoreline, in summer clothes, with a beaming smile on her face. Becky had been helping her grandmother clean out her attic. Becky knew her grandmother had been born in a different country, and she knew that topic was typically off limits for conversation. Becky went to sit next to her grandmother, who was also sifting through boxes, and handed her the picture. “Will you tell me something about your home? The home you had before you came here?”
Becky’s grandmother let out a deep sigh. She took the picture and studied it closely. “I remember this day,” she began. Then she let out a quiet laugh, followed by another sigh. She put the picture down and ran her hands across her face to conceal her tears, then moved on to sort through another box. “I’m sorry, Becky. Another day.”
This experience is not unusual to refugees. This was all the more the case for God’s people because they knew themselves to be refugees because of their disobedience. Let us not forget that the Bible is written for a people who are mourning and in search of hope.
Pray for the next refugees you see on the news.
Amy Knepp is a graduate of Indiana Wesleyan University and a stay-at-home mother of four children.
© 2017 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission.
