My overwhelming experience of Rwanda, and her people, is that whilst they have passed through the deepest of death valleys, they have and are climbing out - together. The people refuse to be defined and destroyed by the hatred and fear that has left a permanent scar.
We are pressed on every side by troubles, but not crushed and broken.
We are perplexed… but we don’t give up and quit.
We are hunted down, but God never abandons us.
We get knocked down, but we get up again and keep going.
(2 Corinthians 4:8,9)
I'm not suggesting it has been, or ever will be any easy journey for people to put aside the fear invoked by memories of past betrayal, distrust and pain. But there comes a time, when for the sake of a future, people of different beliefs and cultures must be willing to look for common ground upon which hope can be built. Rather than perpetuate and celebrate the discontinuities that exist between all humanity - claim, celebrate and develop the small but powerful similarities.
Rwanda is, I think, a thumbnail portrait of the world. The labels are different, but more and more we are allowing the labels "Christian" and "Muslim" to define and separate us. And in the process of gaining supremacy more and more innocents are dying.
The future of our world may well be in the willingness of the members of these two 'superpowers' to honour one another. It begins with genuine dialogue (not pre-planned lecture), it will include justice and it is underwritten by a committment to forgiveness.
