Guest Blog by Bethany Anderson
I held a one week old baby boy tonight. He is perfectly beautiful and I was instantly in love. He’s just a little guy, weighing in at just over 6 pounds. He has all this hair and likes to pucker his big lips. His name is JJ and he is what many sadly refer to as an “anchor baby”.
You see, his mother is a 15 year old girl from Central America who upon finding out she was pregnant decided to make the dangerous journey to the US. She is an “illegal” immigrant.
As I was holding JJ I thought about how innocent he is. I thought about how happy he must make Jesus, laying there in his purest form, untouched by the darkness of the world. I thought about what it will be like for him to grow up and the hardships he will surely face being a child of an immigrant.
Then I thought about the new life he must bring to his mom. This young girl comes from a place infested with violence, poverty and corruption. She has lived more life and seen more devastation in her 15 years than most do in a lifetime.
I hate that many in our country (including far too many in our Church) will never see past the law breaking act of crossing the border to have her baby. I hate that there will be people who think she is manipulative, selfish and wants nothing more than to live off the benefits of having an American Citizen child. Many things will be assumed about her while very few people actually try to get to know her. I hate that many will not see her innocence or her pure intent. I hate that many will not realize how selfless she actually is. I hate that her heroic act of traveling 2000 miles, alone and pregnant, just so her baby won’t have to worry about being kidnapped and trafficked by the gangs or know what it feels like to slowly starve to death, will go unnoticed.
I don’t want to suggest that anyone who is pregnant should be able to come here and I don’t mean to over-emotionalize our current immigration situation. I also don’t want to perpetuate the idea that it is common for immigrants to come unlawfully just to give birth to so-called “anchor babies”: in reality, 91% of undocumented immigrants who give birth in the U.S. have already been present in the U.S. for more than two years; they come primarily to work, not to give birth. I simply want to remind us that there are beating hearts behind this issue. There are people like JJ and his mom who want nothing more than to live a life of dignity. I want us to ask ourselves the difficult questions. I want us to see JJ and his mom and think about what it would look like to love them well. I want us to think about the millions more who were not as lucky as JJ. I want us to consider our part in loving those who have crossed our borders while figuring out our role in the transformation that needs to happen in the places people are coming from. This issue calls for more than new policy; it calls for an army of Christians who are ready to fight poverty and corruption with peace and love. As believers, I don’t think we can complain about the drain JJ and his mom might be on our economy while we do nothing to address the reasons they are here in the first place.
Sometimes I feel hopeless because I know we have such a long way to go.
But then I remember who our God is.
I remember that when Jesus looks at JJ and his mom, He does not see an illegal immigrant and her anchor baby. He sees His son and daughter who He loves with all His heart and who He was willing to die for. I can’t help but hope for the kind of revolution that would occur if we were all more like Christ in this way.
Bethany Anderson is a Christ follower, wife, foster mom, activist, and neighbor and is blessed to be all of these things in the context of her Christ community and a non-profit organization, called Solidarity (www.solidarityrising.org). Bethany dreams of loving children who are hurting, traveling to every corner of the world, the Church actually being the Church, and seeing people truly fall in love with Jesus Christ. You can read more about her journey towards depth with Christ and unity with her neighbors at www.whyifight.com.
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Good Job Sis!
I was just talking to a brother in my church who was sharing with me his story of coming to the states from El Salvador. He told me that during some nights he would be so cold, that he would roll around in the dirt to hopefully add an extra layer to his body in hopes of being just a tiny bit warmer. I was shocked to hear his story, especially since he is a successful business man now, and an elder in our church.
I am glad he is here now, and that I can call him my friend, but I wish that he along with many others would not have to flee corruption and violence just to get a job.
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