When Iceland Shut Down Europe
Posted: Sunday, April 25, 2010
by Joel Kontinen
http://joelkontinen.blogspot.com/
One little volcano eruption shut down practically all air traffic for almost a week in most of Europe. It prevented Barack Obama and West European leaders from attending the funeral of Poland's president Lech Kaczyski and kept Hillary Clinton from flying to Europe. Hundreds of thousands of air travellers were left stranded when their planes remained on the ground and they had to spend their time at airports. Even flower growers in Kenya and computer manufacturers in China suffered as they were unable to send their products anywhere.
I live in a small town in southern Finland not far from an air force base. Usually, I see and hear - at least half a dozen Hornet fighter planes swishing through the skies each day but the past week has been eerily silent. It is not entirely a bad thing since spring brings robins, swans and thrushes from the south and their sound is more melodious than that of Hornets.
Eyjafjallajkull's eruption reminds me of what James warned us about: "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit'; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow."
In his little book of devotions called Die Imitatione Christi, often translated as Of the Imitation of Christ, Thomas a Kempis (ca. 1380- 1471)expressed the same idea in different words: " Homo proponit, sed Deus disponit", i.e. man proposes, but God disposes.
Volcanic eruptions come and go but the Word of the Lord endures. And He knows what is happening.
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