It’s the season for compassion and lifting others’ spirits. We give a bit more thought and energy towards those in need during the Christmas season…and I believe we are looking for ways to make Christmas special for those who don’t understand the reason for the season.

I hope that I am that person and you are too. I know I get very caught up in my own family and friends. I want to be one who reaches out.

Because of the rare period of history we are experiencing right now, there are ways to welcome those in need, to take a stand for those who are desperate and in extreme circumstances.

One way is to use our Christian voice to affirm taking in the stranger and loving the unlovely. As for refugees, we have no other option than to do as Jesus told us, to welcome the stranger. We are not to live in fear. We are to trust in what He has told us in His word.  If you have questions or doubts about this subject, be an active learner, not one lives in reluctance to think about it and get perspective.  Here are just a few of the many places in scripture that inspire and direct us.

• Deuteronomy 10: 19 You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
• Leviticus 19:34 The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
• Matthew 5:43-44 You have heard that it was said, ‘you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy’. But I say to you, love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you.
• Matthew 25:40 Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of my brethren you did it to me.
• Romans 13:10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
• Acts 10:34 Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.
• Revelation 21:3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them.”
• Luke 10:27 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.
• Hebrews 13: 1 Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.
• Colossians 3:11 In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all.
• Matthew 25: 35 I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.
• Romans 12:13 Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.

We all can be an advocate and a volunteer. Women can stand for women in vulnerable places around the world. There are things we can do.

There are also good things we can share about God moving in this world that will bring encouragement and praise to the Christ we love and honor in this season. God is moving in mighty ways in the Muslim world.

Let us rejoice in that fact as much as we can and share it with those who only feel discouragement, as if God has abondoned this world. He has not. Praise to His glorious mercy and grace on all of us.

Check out some of these links….they will fill you with hope and new perspective this Christmas season.