ICEBERG!

An amazing piece of God’s handiwork in the Tracy Arm Fjord off Juneau, in Alaska.

ice·berg (ìsbûrg´) noun from the Dutch ijsberg = ice mountain

This one is small. The tallest known piece in the North Atlantic was over 500 feet above sea level, the height of a 50-floor building! The one labeled “Iceberg B-15,” spotted by satellite in 2000, was about 200 miles × 25 miles, with a mass estimated to be 3 billion tonnes! The largest one, though, was sighted in 1956, 12,000 square miles in area, making it larger than Belgium!

The density of pure ice is about 920 kg/m³. That of sea water is about 1025 kg/m³. So the iceberg floats, with about 11% of the iceberg above water.

All of this makes it a hazard for ships, as the disaster of the Titanic proved in 1912.

Before that catastrophe, there was no official tracking of icebergs to keep navigation channels safe. In 1913, the International Conference on the Safety of Ice at Sea met in London to come up with a plan. Soon maritime nations formed the International Ice Patrol to monitor currents, ice-flow, salinity, water temperatures, etc. Aerial surveys joined the coalition in the 1930s, and radar and computers and satellites soon after.

All of this because the dangers of an unseen hazard was acknowledged.

“I cannot imagine any condition which could cause this ship to flounder.  I cannot conceive of any vital disaster happening to the vessel.  Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that.” So declared Captain E. I. Smith, the master of the Titanic, before its voyage in 1912.

Unlike aforesaid mariner, God’s children are called to be careful, watching out for those “icebergs.”

Therefore let the one who thinks he stands

take heed that he does not fall.

1 Corinthians 10:12

All kinds of icebergs lurk underwater.

Supernatural foes.

But the Spirit explicitly says that

in later times some will fall away

from the faith,

paying attention to deceitful spirits

and doctrines of demons.

1 Timothy 4:1

Ungodly teaching.

You therefore, beloved,

knowing this beforehand,

be on your guard

so that you are not carried away

by the error of unprincipled men and

fall from your own steadfastness.

2 Peter 3:17

The seduction of wealth.

But those who want to get rich

fall into temptation and a snare and

many foolish and harmful desires

which plunge people

into ruin and destruction.

1 Timothy 6:9

Or food.

All things are lawful for me,

but not all things are profitable.

All things are lawful for me,

but I will not be mastered by anything.

Food is for the stomach and

the stomach is for food,

but God will do away with both of them.

1 Corinthians 6:12–13

And sex.

Flee immorality.

Every other sin that one commits

is outside the body,

but the immoral person

sins against his own body.

1 Corinthians 6:18

And on and on.

Walk as children of light, …

trying to learn

what is pleasing to the Lord.

Do not participate in the

unfruitful deeds of darkness ….

Therefore be careful how you walk,

not as unwise men but as wise.

Ephesians 5:8, 10–11, 15

Complacency and cockiness only leads to catastrophe. There is no such thing as an unsinkable ship!

… fight the good fight,

keeping faith and a good conscience,

which some have rejected

and suffered shipwreck

in regard to their faith.

1 Timothy 1:18–19

No one can stand firm on one’s own.

Therefore,

… be strong in the Lord and

in the strength of His might.

Ephesians 6:10

And watch out for those icebergs!