The Way Under Our Feet by Graham B. Usher

Author:Graham B. Usher
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: SPCK
Published: 2020-02-29T08:45:21+00:00

Bowing his shaved head, the café lights dancing off his shining scalp, he reflected ‘God managed to free me from the most difficult time. When you are about to give up, that’s when God answers your prayers. When you think you are tired, that’s when he renews your energy to start on a journey.’

He looks up, his dark eyes gazing straight into mine, a smile lighting up his face. It’s an expression I’ve seen a number of times during our conversation, disclosing a remarkable inner joy, and he says ‘My smile is God given, they can’t take that away from me.’

As of 2018 there were 68.5 million forcibly displaced people worldwide, according to figures published by the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR).10 That’s about one in every 111 people alive today. One person every two seconds of every day is being forced to flee their homes because of conflict or persecution. Of these, 40 million are internally displaced people in their own country, 25.4 million are refugees and 3.1 million are seeking asylum. Eighty-five per cent of refugees are being hosted in developing countries where, despite the hosts’ poverty, generosity is found.

I have included the experiences of a number of refugees I’ve met because I don’t want us to forget that behind the statistics are unique and precious fellow human beings who are afraid, hopeful, desperate and, sometimes, joyously safe.

The common theme that runs through these stories is that leaving their homelands, undergoing dangerous journeys, and taking up residence in a foreign land not only entails emptying themselves, but also radically losing everything they own in their search for safety and security. Refugees miss that deep sense of place that shapes who we are. They fear not only where they have come from, but also the unknown and otherness of where they seek to go. This makes them deeply vulnerable people at risk of exploitation, human trafficking and the worst of human sin. In making policy decisions, we must never forget that they are created imago Dei, in the image and likeness of God, who affirms the value and worth of every human being. When we see first the personal and relational aspects of refugees’ lives, rather than regarding them as social or political problems, their humanity shines through and our conversations tend to take a different trajectory.

We meet many refugees and migrants in the Bible, their stories often coloured by emotional upheaval and trauma. Adam and Eve are banished from the garden of Eden; Noah is displaced by natural disaster; people move from the east to build a city with a tower; Abraham and Sarah, affected by famine, ruling authorities and conflict, are called to leave Abraham’s ancestral home in Ur in Mesopotamia for a nomadic existence where they will be strangers and aliens in Canaan and Egypt; Lot is exiled by invading kings; Hagar is cast out to the desert by the jealousy of Sarah; Isaac and Rebecca go on the move because of hunger; Jacob is displaced

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