All I Want for Christmas...

What I want for Christmas, before I can decorate, shop, wrap, and cook is for all children, no matter what their background, to be treated the same and given food and shelter -- whether they are born in the US, Mexico, Syria or anywhere else; whether they are Christian, Muslim, atheist or whatever; whether they are on welfare, are orphans, or their parents are considered criminals.

It’s so easy for us to label groups as “Refugees” or “Homeless” or “Illegal Immigrants”, to put ourselves above and beyond them, but most of the PEOPLE in these groups are children. Hungry, cold, frightened children, living in tents, boxes, cars, under bridges, with no food or clean water.

For a moment, think of your own child. Imagine being forced from your home for any reason. It burns, a tornado hits, you lose your job and the bank takes it, someone forces you to leave your homeland because of your political or religious beliefs. It can happen – don’t think that it can’t.

Imagine your child cries in hunger or thirst and you have no food or clean water to give it. Imagine it shivers with the cold and you have no dry blanket to cover it, no bed for it to lie on. Imagine it rains or snows and you have no shelter for its head, not even an umbrella. Imagine it’s sick and you have no medicine to give, not even a Band-Aid to cover a bloody knee. These are the refugees, the homeless, the immigrants, and no matter how good, responsible, hard-working, American or Christian you think you are, this could be your child.

Labels, borders and boundaries are man-made, created and perpetuated by us. Yes us. A hungry child is a hungry child, no matter where it lives, no matter who its parents are. Before you buy that next Christmas decoration you don’t really need, or that gift your loved one doesn’t really need, consider helping a child, any child. The season of Christmas, the season of Love and Light, should know no boundaries. Real love knows no boundaries.