Thy Kingdom Come

Though we ventured to Rwanda over a month ago and have had various continuing adventures since that time, the experience deserves one more post, if only to share more stories from oft-silenced voices. And so I shall recount another small snapshot from our excursion to the “Pays des Mille Collines.”

Subsequent to a long and death-defying bus ride and an arduous-yet-rewarding hike to summit Mount Bisoke (three armed guards in tow, a mandatory safety precaution along the Congolese border) we found ourselves in Kigali, four of us crammed into a room meant for two at the Hotel des Mille Collines (better known as the “Hotel Rwanda”). Our goal was to soak in as much as we could the enormity of the events that had transpired there. Staring down at the swimming pool from our balcony, we imagined the refugees collecting drinking water in buckets, unsure as to when rescue would come – if it were to come at all.

The next day we paid a visit to the Kigali Genocide Memorial. Amidst the mass graves, photos of genocide victims, quotes of children’s last words, and large panels explaining the chain of events, attempting to give some sort of order to senseless evil, one story continues to stay with me. It was not particularly highlighted; the text and accompanying picture occupied a small space on the side of a large panel, one of many illustrations offered to drive home the sheer magnitude of what had occurred. The story told of a pastor who, shortly after the killing had begun, told Tutsi members of his congregation to gather in the church building for protection. As his flock huddled in the church, likely shaking with fear, that very same pastor ordered the church building to be bulldozed. He literally murdered nearly his entire congregation.

Rwanda is a mesmerizing country shaped by its jagged mountains, dense jungle, and tiered coffee plantations. Three days ago on Easter morning I sat in the southeast of Uganda, reading my Bible and looking out over different hills. The Passion of the Christ never ceases to move me, yet one particular line caught my attention that day. Some women who loved Jesus were following him weeping as he carried his cross. Jesus turned and asked them not to cry for him but for themselves and their descendents. And what he said after that struck a deep chord within me: “For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”

He knows what men are capable of; he saw the screams of the Tutsis as he made his way up Calvary, his own screams close at hand. “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand,” said John the Baptist. Depending on your theological leanings, the Kingdom of God is either growing now, as in a mustard seed emerging into a large tree, or is to come in the future. Being of the former disposition, I believe we are mandated to strive here and now, as God’s outworking of His Kingdom on earth and as our blog title boldly proclaims, for “peace on earth, goodwill to men.” For evil is not the only force at work in this world, but there is also the good and, as Tolkein writes, “that is an encouraging thought.”

Though this Easter message comes a bit late, grab a jelly bean and rejoice with me that Christ marched up Calvary to die so that his Kingdom may come; we are given the privilege to help build that Kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven.”

- Sara