Minivans and Ashes

Have you seen the Toyota Sienna commercial with the mom in her robe hiding out in her minivan to get a break from her family? Here it is If you have not. Somedays I want to be that mom. Hiding out in my minivan. I have the Sienna, the robe and the cell phone, though I don't have a DVD player in my van. Instead of hiding in my minivan, I will go in my room with my blogs, coffee and DVR'ed reruns of The Office or the Daily Show and let my mind take a little mental nap.

This week I anticipated needing a few mental breaks. My Beloved was scheduled to leave early this morning for a week in Dublin. He was excited to visit a new country and I was happy it was only going to be a five day trip with him being off on Friday. So I scheduled our week, with babysitters for the nights I had meetings, and set up times to help with the school carnival on Friday while my honey was home with the kids. My Beloved filled his phone with new movies and music and got all his stuff ready for the trip. And then the Icelandic volcano spewed ash into the atmosphere and flights to Europe started being cancelled. The high pressure system, that brought the beautiful weather forecast to Dublin, also is keeping the ash in place high in the sky, making it unsafe for planes to fly. So my Beloved's flight was cancelled and the meetings he was supposed to attend have been changed to conference calls.

It turns out that all of our technological advances are no match for God's creation. We have figured out how to make aluminum cans full of people fly through the air, but an act of God in the form of a volcanic eruption can cause thousands of flights to be cancelled. The volcano does not care that people have to be at meetings in Hong Kong, that someone needs their flight to the US desperately to get medical treatment, that a happy couple is waiting for their family to arrive from faraway lands to celebrate their wedding. We like to think we can control things, that we can schedule and plan, pack and prepare. And we can. But in the end, God is in control. And our plans are at the whims of His creation, whether it is volcano, flood, unexpected snow storm or earthquake. Lately the news has been full of these acts of God. I think it is good for us to stop when these happen around the world and remember that God is in control of His creation.