Who would have ever believed just weeks ago that an event would occur in Iceland that would bring international travel and engagements to a halt? Of all countries that weld power and sway, no one would have suspected that an event in far away and far out-of-the-way Iceland would result in the present GLOBAL situation!

International travel comes to a stand still as a massive ash cloud hovers in the air from an Icelandic volcano. Thousands of people are left stranded in airports. Terminals are literally shut down. Trans-atlantic travel slows to a crawl. Foreign dignitaries were unable to attend the funeral services for Poland’s officials. Airlines are facing bankruptcies. The Red Cross is called out to airports. As the days mount up, so does the impatience of travelers. Believe it or not, people are demanding to fly and airlines are trying their best to get up in the air in spite of the remaining dangers of airline travel! Incredible! People really want to get up in the air and take their chance!!

Society grows impatient when plans, business, and leisure are put on halt. I must admit I sit at home with no immediate plans for travel, which explains my ease with the situation. However, there are glaring lessons for us to learn from a sky filled with ash. With all our human autonomy, ingenuity, and technology, a cloud of ash is beyond our control! When natural events like this unfold, we are reminded that there remains situations beyond us. While we think that we command our paths, schedules, and days, a volcano in Iceland brings us back to a sense of true reality. We are not as powerful and controlling as we think we are!

For believers, we understand that more is communicated in an event such as this. This is not another sign that Mother Nature holds sway, but rather that this world and all who are in it remain under the authority and direction of Providence! One is reminded of words from James. 4:13-15 reads, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’”