I have spent the past years trying to organise, arrange and fix things so that I can settle down. Have a moment of peace. Trying to organise paperwork. Registering births and acquiring visas and passports. Organising study visas. And resident visas. Trying to make us safe. To make sure our vehicle is safe. And our house is safe. To provide the best I can for my girls. And ensure that we are legal where we are living, working and studying.
I have prayed a lot about each and every visa and permit and passport. Where we live depends on them. Yet, these restrictions are all made by man, and by man’s rules about who should live where and belong to which group, who has which rights and who needs which bit of paper.
I wonder what God thinks of borders? And “immigration”?
I nearly got arrested the other day. The closest I have been. I was crossing the border using my UK passport as I always do. But I also am now a citizen of the Republic of South Africa. And what I did not know (because I had not asked?!) is that it is illegal to cross any border into or leaving South Africa as a South African citizen using any passport other than a South African one. Ooops. I stood there facing a fine/imprisonment of up to 12 months. And worse, the fear that they would confiscate my UK passport and I would be unable to come home!
Unsure of how to proceed, I was summoned “through”. This is not good at an African border. The less fuss you make the better.
I was lucky. The actually very helpful official heard my wails and accepted ignorance as a valid excuse, granting me three months waiver to apply for a South African passport.
But, citizen of Scotland or citizen of South Africa, I am first and foremost a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven. And that is what matters. That is where I will stop. For all other places, I am just in transit. Just passing through…
