MORE ON MIGRATION

“Where you go, I will go, and where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.”     

Ruth 1:16

“Do you think it is right to cross a border illegally?” asked my young conservative grandson. I had heard this question/argument before, and I was not prepared to argue with a young man who loves to debate. “No”, I said “But what are we going to do about those women and children who are packed up against a wall?” For the time being this ended the question but not the problem.

When Abram (Gen 12) and his tribe went wandering into someone else’s territory there was no discussion in the bible about a border but there was a fight between Abrams’ crew and the indigenous bunch already there. Later God gave Abram all the land that he could see from east to west and north to south but not, at that time, a defined border. There were no borders.

Birds migrate. Animals migrate. Fish migrate. Butterflies migrate. They do not cross borders. They just follow instinct, intuition (the voice of God?). We understand this because we build animal tunnels under major highways. We plan for salmon to run and build ladders for them to get upstream to spawn. We are trying to find ways for birds to migrate safely around wind turbines and skyscrapers.

Humans? Humans create borders. Borders to keep people in and to keep people out. Borders may change but not without a good fight or a devastating war. Humans created a system of ownership, personal and collective. Early humans, when land was plentiful and there was space for all, did not have borders or own land. They had tribal systems, scrapped with each other and migrated with the animals. It was Paradise. It worked until land became scarce for people now within borders. Humans again began to migrate. Eventually whole continents, North and South America and Africa and Europe were chopped up into countries with borders. Native Americans through, who did not understand the concept of land ownership, traded away their land for a few beads, and eventually guns, as they also unknowingly acquired borders.

Humans used to migrate! Evidence tells us that hunters crossed the Bering Sea and in relatively few years migrated the American Continents. I expect they brought their women with them because we know they settled in the frozen north, temperate zones and tropical areas and developed their cultures in accordance with the climes. One has to be fascinated by Aztec remains and now by DNA studies revealing more intimate information about their culture.

Humans moved from Asia westward into what is known today as the Middle East. Celts came from somewhere in the far east and battled their way into Europe and Africa, continuing their way north through Spain and France into the British Islands. They themselves were undoubtedly changed along the way. They brought with them a sense of God and Creation that changed things. And as always, fought, with the locals for the right to be.

Modern history and myth tell us a lot about human migration. Most interesting for me are the stories of the Celtic migrants who lived in the islands we know as Great Britan. Their stories and songs tell of a people who knew a creator before Christian migrants told them about The Creator. They were a scrappy bunch, a loving bunch, a creative bunch and a practical bunch. Their culture so well developed that it was their missionaries who returned to the European Continent bringing Light following the Dark Ages.

 I love the story of two monks, like Abram following God’s Voice, who got into a boat, without oars, and set off in faith from Ireland not knowing where they might land. Is it instinct or intuition or desperation or the voice of God that tells us to “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.”? It is the command I followed when I left my parental home.

When I look at a view of Planet Earth I see unimaginable unspoiled beauty. If I close my eyes, I see the planet covered with little dotted colored lines, an arrow on one end of the line, that tell stories of humans moving, moving, moving. Instinct, intuition, desperation or the voice of God speaking borders or not, moving, migrating.

Shared By: Ann Dolbier

Celtic Way Contributor & Board Member