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a healthy church...transformingLIFE

Tasmanian Anglican

December 2004

 

Editor's angle

by Sheelagh Wegman

 

 

Time does go faster as we get older - doesn't it? Is it really a whole year since the last silly season was upon us, with everyone busily making plans for 2005 and beyond?

We mortals like to plan ahead, to prepare for any circumstance, and we are very good at it. We anticipate how much money we'll have, what we can buy with it. We feel safer, I suppose, if we are ready and not likely to be caught unawares by anything harmful. We like to be in control of our own destiny.

But the flipside of this is that we are also very adept at convincing ourselves that everything really is under our control - it's like having one of those frig. magnets for every eventuality. The unknown is scary; mysteries frustrate our reasoning minds; there must be a rational explanation for everything, even the weather and natural catastrophes. (By the way, why does the lining stick to a non-stick frypan?) It is as if by the explanation we take control.

It was very enlightening recently to hear some earth scientists discussing possible 'scenarios' for the Mt St Helens volcano in the far North West of the US. The mountain is rumbling again, after blasting away tonnes of earth and trees at its last eruption a decade or so ago. The webcam* has been fascinating to log onto over the past few weeks and has enabled the rest of the world to observe this mountain from the safety of a computer screen. And quite spectacular it looks, too.

The experts discussed all the 'what-ifs' and the 'what-we-can-do-ifs', but the more they talked the more apparent it seemed that while they knew what could happen, they were completely powerless to halt any of it. Human power has absolutely no hold over such a seething giant. And strangely, I found that encouraging.

It reminds me that something much bigger that us is in charge. The mysteries of the natural world often confound us, but not the One who set the whole thing spinning.

And the time of The Big Mystery is upon us. 2000 years of examination and explanation still fall short of our full understanding of the Christmas miracle. It is still 'awe-full'. We still can't really comprehend it.

Maybe there's some things we simply have to accept - and wonder at.

*You can log on to the Mount St Helens VolcanoCam - remember the 19hrs time difference.