Leonard Greene: You can’t have your fruitcake and eat it, too, celebrating Christ means embracing migrants

Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath no place to lay his head.

‭‭Luke‬ ‭9‬:‭58‬ ‭

Days before dawn broke on another Christmas morning in New York, a desperate asylum seeker disappeared into the bathroom of a Queens shelter and ended his complicated life.

His partner, who had traveled with John Ortega from the uncertainty of Venezuela to the unwelcoming southern borders of America, and on the uncomfortable bus ride to Port Authority, found him by himself, lifeless — and hopeless.

Ortega was one of the thousands of migrants facing turmoil in their homeland, abandoned at America’s border and dispatched to a city willing, but unprepared to shoulder the burden of political shenanigans.

Mayor Adams, a willing soul, said the nearly 32,000 new migrants who have come to New York City so far are stretching the shelter system beyond its capacity.

Nearly 1,000 migrants are coming to the city every week, Adams said.

“Our shelter system is full, and we are nearly out of money, staff and space,” Adams said last week. “This can’t continue.”

“Truth be told, if corrective measures are not taken soon, we may very well be forced to cut or curtail programs New Yorkers rely on,” he said, “These are not choices we want to make, but they may become necessary, and I refuse to be forced to choose new arrivals over current New Yorkers.”

There is no better day than Christmas Day to reflect on the importance of how we treat people who seek our help.

As we exchange gifts, open presents and put bikes and toys together, we should remember that Christmas is observed to celebrate the arrival of a Savior who was born a migrant to parents who were fleeing persecution.

The biblical account of Jesus’ birth has the baby messiah born in a manger with ox and lamb because there was no room in the inn.

Herod, the reigning king at the time, felt threatened by the arrival of the prophesied messiah, and had dispatched soldiers to find the baby and kill him.

Even the wise men, whose tributes of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, is said by some to be the root of modern-day gift-giving, didn’t trust Herod. They returned home, according to the Bible, “by another path.”

The Bible is filled with stories of migrants — and God’s favor on them.

“And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him,” God says in the Bible’s Book of Leviticus. “But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself.”

That’s pretty clear.

So, if you’re celebrating this holiday, and you like to remind people of “the reason for the season,” then you can’t have your fruitcake and eat it, too.

Celebrating Jesus and His glorious birth means embracing the migrant circumstances out of which He came.

Otherwise, you might as well take the star off the tree, and put the present back in the box.

The Bible also has a lot to say about hypocrisy. Merry Christmas. We’ll deal with that some other time.