Good Guide
From the site of the Mount of Beatitudes to the Lake of Tiberias (Sea of Galilee) is a path. As we walked the path, our guide, Eyad, stopped and picked up trash. He stuffed empty water bottles, power bar wrappers, toilet tissue, and whatever else into a plastic bag. I watched him and wondered why he was doing this. After all, Eyad is a Palestinian Christian. He is not a citizen of Israel, and we were in the State of Israel. He is a Jerusalemite, meaning that he has a Jerusalem ID. So why would a Palestinian Christian with no Israeli citizenship care about keeping Israel clean?
My cynical self, not always my best self, but a self that often has the first word, simply figured that Eyad was being a good steward of the land. He does make his living by walking people up and down these trails. He has pride in his work and wants the people he leads to have the best experience possible. So he picks up trash. It’s in his own self interest to keep Israel clean.
Maybe so, but perhaps there is more to this than just that – my best self seems to think so. Eyad belongs to this land, and this land belongs to him as well. This is not to say that others do not belong to the land, or that the land does not belong to others. I simply am not able to understand why so many make this a case of either/or. Eyad belongs to this land, and this land belongs to him. He can trace his ancestry back hundreds of years. Along with many others, Eyad has roots in the soil of this land.
Eyad loves this land. You can tell by the way he touches the land and the trees and the stones. And when he speaks of this place it is with such reverence and joy. Eyad loves the land. He loves the history of the land, all of it. He revels in all the stories spun from the fertile soil of this place, whether the stories are of Old Testament characters like Elijah, or New Testament eccentrics like John the Baptist. And Eyad loves the stories of Jesus best of all. He tells all the tales with great relish. His voice is filled with awe as he points out the place where Deborah led the fight against Sisera. Jael, one of the stars in that story – remember the tent stake driven through Sisera’s head and into the ground? – is like a sister to Eyad. He greatly enjoyed retelling that story and pointing toward the place where it might have happened.
Eyad loves this land. He is proud of her history -- most of it at least.
What Eyad wants is to live in peace with whomever else wants peace. He wants a flag and a national anthem and he told me he doesn’t care whether it is Israeli or Palestinian. He wants a passport with his picture in it.
“I don’t want others off the land,” he said. “I want my two sons to belong somewhere. And I don’t want to have to send them away in order for them to find such a place. I want them to live here with me. I want them to raise their sons and daughters here in this place. I want to walk my grandchildren over this hill and through these valleys. And when I do, I want to be able to tell them the stories of the Bible and let them know that these stories are their stories too.”
Pretty good guide, huh?
