From Turin, Italy – May 12, 2010. We’re here!!! Because of the recent eruption of volcanic ash, it took Jimmy and I twenty-four hours to get to Turin. We flew right over Iceland and that volcano to see the Shroud of Turin. Does that flight pattern make sense to you? You’d think there’d be a more practical route, given that volcano’s temperment.
Coming in September!
In a few days Jimmy and I will be on our way to Turin, Italy to view the Shroud, and I’ve been thinking about the miraculous image on that cloth. I will share the experience of being in Turin during this rare exhibition next week in blogs and hope you’ll join us. We’ll be with Barry Schwortz, one of the world’s great experts on the Shroud, so I’ll pass along the latest information as we get it.
News of world chaos over the recent volcanic eruption in Iceland reminded me of another enormous one 4000 years ago that may have evidenced God’s wrath during the time of Moses. The eruption, one of the largest in recorded history, wiped out the advanced Minoan civilization on the Greek Islands of Crete and Thera (today, Santorini). It’s even possible that this is the lost civilization Plato described as Atlantis. Many Biblical archeologists and historians believe that effects of the huge Minoan eruption are mentioned in the book of Exodus when God commanded Pharaoh to let his people go. Recall the turmoil, the plagues that followed Pharaoh ignored God’s demand–water, blood, frogs, dust, lice, hail, darkness–a thick darkness in the land of Egypt for three days.
Ashes from the Icelandic volcano have now spread throughout the North Atlantic and over Northern Europe. According to recent news reports, ash plumes reach as high as 55,000 feet in the air. Ash from the Minoan explosion during Old Testament times caused even greater damage, more widespread destruction. In Egypt archeologists and historians believe that it could have brought not only darkness laden with particles of ash and other debris mentioned in Exodus, but also drastic climate changes, disrupting the entire ecosystem in the area. Ashes from the Minoan volcano have been found as far away as California in growth rings of redwood trees.
I’m looking at the devastation in Haiti and thinking about that old question – why do such terrible things happen in this world? How is it that some of us are lucky enough to be born in a country like the United States of America, and others are born in places like Haiti, Somalia, Sudan? Sometimes there’s a rational answer that seems to fit–the fact that since the first days we’ve been given free will and the responsibility to make our choices and take the consequences. And that makes sense even when the consequences are remote, distanced from the choice. A personal choice often impacts other people, and can turn into something bigger and bigger and bigger, like a snowball rolling down the hill. I can understand that.
Subscribe to this blog feed.
