GLACIAL!

Tracy Arm Fjord is a magnificent 30-mile long glacier-created fjord, about 60 miles southeast of Juneau. A bright green body of water between sheer, glacier-carved granite cliffs shrouded in mist, with innumerable waterfalls cascading into the fjord. An amazing sight. Naturalist John Muir, in the early 20^th century, even went so far as to claim that the region was even more spectacular than the Yosemite valley.

And then those glaciers at the end of the fjord (or is it the beginning?)! What a sight! And the sea lions frolicking all around. Not to mention the “calving,” the dislodging of huge chunks of ice that plunge with a thunderous sound into the frigid waters below. And so the fjord is filled with icebergs, all bright blue, just like the parent glacier.

Technically, these masses of ice are the result of accumulation of snow and sleet at a faster rate than it can melt. Over centuries it hardens into tens and hundreds (and, occasionally thousands) of square miles of ice: glaciation. And it moves: its weight, the surface slope, gravity, water at the interface of ice and land, etc., contributing to its motion. It moves … glacially.

gla·cial (glâ¹shel) adjective 1.a. Of, relating to, or derived from a glacier. b. Suggesting the extreme slowness of a glacier.

The word has come to be a synonym for slowness (though that may be unfair to the glaciers: they’ve been known to move as fast as 100 feet a day). But all in all, “glaciality” is a typical feature of glaciers. Their movements are not apparent unless one observes them across decades or centuries.

Nothing seems to happen, but things are … at a glacial pace.

Life is often like that. Glacial. Or so we think. Simply because we can’t see things happening.

But God is working. On his own timetable. In his own scale.

For a thousand years in Your sight

Are like yesterday when it passes by,

Or as a watch in the night.

Psalm 90:4

Peter agreed.

But do not let this one fact

escape your notice, beloved,

that with the Lord one day

is like a thousand years,

and a thousand years like one day.

2 Peter 3:8

Isaac Watts put it well three centuries ago:

Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home.

Before the hills in order stood,
Or earth received her frame,
From everlasting Thou art God,
To endless years the same.

A thousand ages in Thy sight
Are like an evening gone;
Short as the watch that ends the night
Before the rising sun.

Isaac Watts, 1719

So even if we can’t see it, hear it, or feel it, something is happening. Because God is working. Always is. Never stops. No vacations. No breaks. No naps.

He who keeps you will not slumber.

Behold, He who keeps Israel

Will neither slumber nor sleep.

Psalm 121:3–4

Glacial? Maybe. But not on God’s clock or calendar. And maybe that’s the operation of time we must adopt and follow.

Therefore be patient, brethren,

until the coming of the Lord.

The farmer waits for

the precious produce of the soil,

being patient about it ….

You too be patient; strengthen your hearts,

for the coming of the Lord is near.

James 5:7–8

And what about all the evil—in us, around us, against us? God is doing something about it; it began with the victory of Jesus Christ on the cross. And it will reach its consummation soon and very soon.

Hang in there!