Thread by @Monte_Alto

This Nativity scene at Claremont United Methodist Church was posted to Facebook

It depicts Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus separated and put in their own cages, a reference to the families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Inside the church, the family is shown as reunited.

Senior minister Karen Clark Ristine shared the image on Facebook with the message hoping that everyone in the United States could see the photo and read the story for Christmas.

#EndFamilySeparation

In a time in our country when refugee families seek asylum at our borders

and are unwillingly separated from one another, we consider the most well-known refugee family in the world. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, the Holy Family. Shortly after the birth of Jesus, Joseph and Mary were forced to flee with their young son from Nazareth to Egypt to escape King

Herod, a tyrant. They feared persecution and death.
What if this family sought refuge in our country today?
Imagine Joseph and Mary separated at the border and Jesus no older than two taken from his mother and placed behind the fences of a Border Patrol detention center as more

than 5,500 children have been the past three years.
Jesus grew up to teach us kindness and mercy and a radical welcome of all people.
He said: “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me” Matthew 25:35

In the Claremont United Methodist Church nativity scene this Christmas, the Holy Family takes the place of the thousands of nameless families separated at our borders.
Inside the church, you will see this same family reunited, the Holy Family together, in a nativity that joins

the angels in singing “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace and good will to all.” Luke 2:14

#holyfamilyseparated #endfamilyseparation
facebook.com/photo.php?fbid…