There is an interesting backstory to the photo I posted here today to go along with my message. It was taken by me in the summer of 2014 while Kathy and I were down in Big Bend, TX. We had made the trek down that way in June for a few days to visit the area for our first time. We both remember clearly, the drive through some very inhospitable terrain, during the summer heat, and what we were talking about in the car that day while driving.

That was the year there had been a huge surge in undocumented children…showing up at the southern border, many who had made the trip up from central America. What was hard to fathom was the fact that most of them were unaccompanied by adults, and somehow had survived walking through hundreds of miles of the very kind of terrain we were driving in at the time. I still remember Kathy and I discussing this very thing as we drove to Big Bend. How did these kids get here…and survive? Who…or what…brought them here?

This humanitarian crisis dominated the news cycles that summer, with reports estimating some 65,000+ children tried coming in across the border, a surge of 77% from the previous year. It was being reported that extreme gang violence, poverty, and local threats drove families to send their children north. Allegedly, smugglers had been spreading false rumors regarding U.S. immigration policies being relaxed to encourage the dangerous journey. [Info from Google search and AI overview]

Politics aside…you couldn’t help but to feel empathy and heartbreak for whatever the reasons that led so many of these young children who found themselves in such a dire predicament. And I just remember asking, over and over…’who brought them here?’.and ‘how... did they get here’? And how horrific has one's life become that you make such a decision as a parent to do such a thing?

After a day or two of hiking the park and taking pictures of night skies and summer desert thunderstorms, I posted a few pics on my FB page before we prepared to make the drive back home to Paris. I clearly remember taking this photo the evening we had driven in to eat dinner at a local place in the town. I had been keeping an eye on the weather, knowing storms were in the area and had my camera ready to leap into action, as I have been known to do over the years. We had a setting sun in the west and the approaching storm coming up from the southeast providing an incredible blend of lightning, rainbows, and picturesque clouds coming up from across the southern border.

But it was a comment and observation that someone made pertaining to this image I share with you today that really caught my attention, and I’ve never been able to ‘unsee it’ since. I sure didn’t notice this when I took it, edited, or posted it, but the commenter asked if I could see in the clouds…a shape or form of what appeared to be an older ‘man’ with flowing hair and beard, left arm exposed and seemingly carrying an infant wrapped in some blanket of sorts.

Take a moment and go click on the image and see if it doesn’t ‘pop up’ to you as well.

I don’t want to use the word ‘haunted’…but I would be lying if I told you that I was not deeply affected by what I then saw for myself in those clouds. And while I’m not about to make any case for what I saw or sensed at the time, the question certainly occurred to me – ‘Could God have been instrumental in bringing so many unaccompanied children to our borders?’ Which leads me back to my message from yesterday, and I hope you have read it before continuing on here today. The question I presented in it was ‘Who is my neighbor’?

I know we have been conditioned to make everything so ‘political’ on so many pressing issues and news stories we face on a daily basis. And in my past 66 years of living, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen such a deepening divide in this country, whether you are talking politics, religion, social and cultural trends, etc. As I stated yesterday, what has grieved me more than anything…has been the responses and attitudes conveyed by so many who claim to be part of the body of Christ, especially in the way in which they… have responded to two large segments of the population in this country- undocumented immigrants and the growing Muslim community we are hearing much about.

There has been a ‘guided attempt’ to ‘demonize’ both groups with broad brush strokes of fear and hate and disdain. I see it in my social media feeds, I hear it on various broadcasts and podcasts, etc. I hear such sentiments expressed by many in the ‘church’ today. And I have to ask, again…have we forgotten the words of Jesus who told us that if we truly were in search of ‘eternal life’…that we were to ‘love our neighbor as ourself’, or better yet…’as He first loved us’? (John 13:34-35; 15:12)

I’m not here writing to share how I believe we as a nation or our government entities should be responding to either groups. I’m here challenging us as a body of believers to examine our own hearts (2 cor. 13:5) in how we are to respond to them, and nowhere in NT scripture can the case be made that we are to ‘ban and banish’ our ‘neighbors’ regardless of how they got here or what they believe. But friends, we need to talk about this, and what is happening within our hearts; because God is watching closely. (Deut. 8:2; 1 Thess. 2:4)

We could take the time to break down and address the issues of both groups of people who seem to be a real sore spot for many folks today who are concerned about the presence of both undocumented immigrants, and Muslims who are living here today practicing their faith (Islam). I could be wrong, but from my limited viewpoint, it seems as if those who are most vocally opposed to both groups living among us are those who call themselves ‘Christian’. And it’s to them who I am pleading with to at least hear me out on what I am feeling compelled to share with you here.

IF…we believe that God is ‘sovereign’, then we have to believe that God could have certainly kept both groups of these people from infiltrating (in mass numbers) our ‘beloved country whom He has shed His grace upon’. But apparently, God has NOT ‘kept them out’, so maybe it’s time to ask: “Why has God ‘allowed’ them to enter? For what reason might God have been instrumental in ‘bringing’ them here? Was it to do good…or could it be, as many seem to think is the case…these two unwanted populations are here to do great harm, if not ‘destroy’ us. And this…is where it gets quite fascinating to examine. I hope you’ll join me tomorrow.