It’s Confusing…or Some Thoughts on Heaven (Part II)

If you want to see how overly complex (and nearly hopeless) the current situation in Iraq is, talk to a female Kurdish Muslim refugee. After doing so, you’ll see that a thing as simple as war won’t heal old wounds.

Kurdistan is an ideal. An ancient land, Kurdistan is so called because of the ethic makeup of its population – Kurds. After the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, the Kurds were promised an independent nation. However, this was rejected, and Turkey took half of the Kurdish occupied land, and the British Empire was given the rest. Today, Kurdistan is a geographic overlay that includes parts of five nations (Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Syria and Armenia). There is no capital of Kurdistan, no president, and no passports that bear its name. But, if you ask a Kurdish refugee where they’re from, the reply will be, “Kurdistan.” And, you’ll retreat to a globe or a map and search and search, but you won’t find black outlines with KURDISTAN in the middle. It’s like it doesn’t exist.

To the western modern mind, this makes no sense. Why would you say you’re from a place that doesn’t exist? How can you be from an area and not a country? Doesn’t where you’re from have to have borders, a beginning and an end? But to the Kurd dreaming of home, Kurdistan is as real as Tennessee, Mexico, or Antarctica.

Most Kurds’ passports will have the name of one of the above countries. But, depending on which country that is, these same people were not given birth certificates, and their Kurdish names were banned and Arabic ones given to them. Their oppressors thought that maybe if the individuality of these individuals didn’t exist, then perhaps their hopes for independence might disappear as well. But it gets worse.

Talking with a Kurdish refugee will also make you want to support the current American-led campaign in Iraq. Many years ago, many times, Saddam Hussein gassed the northern inhabitants of Iraq, releasing poison in civilian settings. The woman I spoke with today told me of friends and family who needlessly died. In the genocide dictionary, this is known as ethnic cleansing.

Many Kurds in America have little interest in Kurdistan gaining independence in terms of what you and I may consider independence. There is no desire to have currency, bicameral legislatures, or Olympic teams. They simply want peace. Regardless what their passport says, Kurds want to live free – free from danger, oppression, and fear.

I imagine heaven in much the same way. I see heaven, like Kurdistan, as an overlay. Heaven will be comprised of many different nations, different viewpoints, different loyalties, different histories, and different ideas. It won’t need its borders defended because it will be borderless. It will be a place where people can be free to be themselves and with peace floating in the atmosphere, they will gather with friends and family for a feast.

Those of us who dream of a heaven full of love and peace and generosity can only speak of it like this woman spoke of her homeland. We can’t outline it on a map, but we’ll know when we’re there, and we know when we see it here on earth. We know that one day, there will be a place where we can all gather free from fear, disease, death, failure, despair and fatigue. We’re not sure of all the details, how it all will go down, or who will get their first. But we do dream of home.