In his book called Soul Keeping, John Ortberg writes, “ In the book of Exodus, God says to his people, ‘You shall not a oppress a stranger; you know the soul of a stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.’ “ He goes on to write, “Everybody has a soul. We demean people when we forget they have the depth and dignity of a soul.”
Powerful words for a divisive and rhetoric filled world. I believe that it is easy to demean and vilify when we see people as “other” than us…when we forget they have a soul like us. Part of our role at IAFR is to help re-humanize those who have been forcibly displaced, to help people see the “soul” of the individuals. May we see people as God sees them!