Iceland: Wild and Beautiful

Last year, our family had the opportunity to travel for several months.

Of all the places we visited, Iceland stood out as the most beautiful and extraordinary place to explore.

Iceland is wild. It is a land of volcanoes, waterfalls, geysers, storms and hot springs. We were there on the longest day of the year and we literally never saw the night sky. My husband swam along the Silfra Fissure, the 60-metre-deep chasm that separates the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates. We hiked up mountains to bathe in thermal hot springs, avoiding the steaming pools where the water was hot enough to boil an egg.

And for all the wildness and beauty of Iceland, there was also an unsettling sense of awe and isolation. We were as far away from home as I could ever imagine. The landscape was unlike anything I had ever seen. The thing that makes Iceland so beautiful is also what makes it slightly unsettling: it is wild.

In Jeremiah, the writer proclaims of God:

You have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you. (Jer 32:17)

As I travelled around Iceland, the creative and powerful handiwork of God was everywhere I looked. When I think about the awe I felt seeing a landscape so unfamiliar to me, it seems even more wonderful to consider the hand of a Creator God who made the heavens and earth by His great power.

And for us humans, the pinnacle of God’s creation, there is great comfort in the promise that ‘nothing is too hard for God’. I can count many times in my week when things feel hard; complex problems that are hard to solve, long lists of things to do or the weariness at the end of a long day. To understand that the amazing creator God, whose power can be seen in all parts of our world, has also promised us that nothing is too hard for Him, brings even more awe and thankfulness for all He has done. I pray that during your week, and whatever life feels like now, you’ll find shelter, strength and peace in your Creator.

Stelle Carmichael - Head of Students