Please see the special note at the bottom of this email.
“Oh, there’s no place like home for the holidays.” So goes the song and I heartily agree. But you know who won’t be home for Christmas this year? Former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. As his government fell last week, he and his family fled to Russia. He’ll have coal in his stocking for sure, but he’ll do ok with the billions he collected while his countrymen starved.
Is it a good thing Assad is out of power? Only God really knows, but I’ll be honest with you, I’m glad he’s gone. His list of evil deeds would make the Grinch blush. I pray the forces who sent him packing will be able to rebuild and run the country. But, “Out of the frying pan and into the fire” keeps circling in my brain!
Here’s what I really wonder about: What conversations are happening around dinner tables among the six million Syrians who’ve fled their country since the civil war began in 2011? Can we even imagine what it must be like?
“Should we return home?”
“Is this God’s answer to our desperate prayers?”
“What ‘home’ is there to return to?”
“Will we be forced to leave what has become something of a home for us and certainly so for the kids?”
“What do you mean, you’re thinking of taking us away from our school and our friends to go back to some hell hole we don’t even remember?!?”
“Do the people who look at us in the street or at work wish us well or wish us gone?”
Remember that Jeremiah quote we like, even if we possibly take it out of context?
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jer. 29.11)
That may apply to Syrians even more than to you and me! And it provides solid scaffolding on which to hang some hopeful prayers. Join me in that?
Special Note: Thank you for reading Muslim Connect. In recent months for a variety of reasons, I’ve lost some quite significant donors to the ministry support that helps keep our family going. If God has blessed you this year and you’ve found value and maybe even some camaraderie in Muslim Connect, I’d like to ask you to make a monthly pledge to this work for 2025. I know this is a big ask, but trust you know you answer to God and not to me. If he leads you to make a monthly commitment, you can do so here. (Click in the “Select Designation” window, find me and follow the prompts.) Thank you very much for considering this.