The Lutheran Magazine March 2008 www.thelutheran.org

My grandmother, Inga, lived with us and fascinated me with her stories. She was the first white child born in that county in South Dakota. I wondered how the American Indians received the new immigrants who settled in their land and how my ancestors regarded those who were living there. How were fears expressed? Disputes settled? Differences recognized?

Amid the contemporary debate about immigration "The question of undocumented immigration", it is important to share family stories of migration and immigration. Some took great risks for the sake of economic prosperity or religious freedom. Others tell of desperate acts of human survival fleeing the ravages of war, famine or the devastation of natural disasters. For countless others, displacement came because they were captured, sold and sent to live as slaves in a place called “the land of the free.”

Themes of migration, slavery, immigration and being refugees are woven into the experiences of our biblical ancestors. In Deuteronomy 26:5, God instructs the people to give the first fruits of the land as an offering of thanksgiving to the Lord. As the priest places the offering on the altar, God instructs the people to say: “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien ....” The story of slavery in Egypt follows as God hears their voices, sees their oppression, delivers them from bondage and brings them to the Promised Land.