When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, "Why do you just keep looking at each other?" He continued, "I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us, so that we may live and not die." – Genesis 42:1-2 (NIV)

“As a little girl in Nicaragua, I always knew that someone in our family was living in United States, earning money to help support us. Now, it’s my turn. We don’t work for luxuries, we work for food.” Go downtown or, as increasingly is the case, even to the suburbs of any small or large city and you’ll probably see someone with a sign pleading “Will work for food.” That’s what every immigrant who crosses over our borders is saying: I’ll work if someone will just pay me enough so I can feed myself. What’s interesting, though, is that so many immigrants do not come to the US to work for themselves alone, but rather for their families back home in Mexico, El Salvador, Colombia, Honduras, Peru or, as in P.’s case above, in Nicaragua. In fact, in 2003 the Inter-American Development Bank reported that Latino immigrants in the US sent over $30 billion to support their families back home. They come with the goal of feeding their families so that “they may live and not die.”

People will do almost anything for food…and they’ll sacrifice almost everything to feed their families. As author Charles Bowden commented after years of observing Latin Americans struggling to reach the US, no one decides to cross the hot, barren, dry desert between Mexico and the US on a lark; no one leaves families and friends whom they may never see again on a whim. People come so they and their families may live and not die. How can you and I become the presence of Christ to Latino and other immigrants in our communities whose only crime is seeking life over death for themselves and their precious loved ones?

God, please provide from your abundant riches for the many immigrants in our communities who seek for themselves and their families only to live and not die. Make me a channel of your good gift of food, both material and spiritual, that my neighbors will be nourished with bread for the day and the Bread of Life for eternity. In Jesus’ name, Amen.