Walking Through the Past and the Future

I should preface this post by admitting that my two nerdiest interests are history and geology.

Today we visited Thingvellir. Thingvellir is a fascinating place for two very different reasons. First, it is a very important place in Icelandic history. The Althingi, the ancient Icelandic parliament, used to meet in Thingvellir, so it is the site of important decisions since I think around 930 A.D. Seriously amazing history has taken place in the very location that I strolled around today. Among these historic decisions was the vote that Iceland should be a Christian nation in 1000 A.D. The Althingi has since moved to Reykjavik, but Icelanders still gather at Thingvellir to celebrate major events, such as the 1000th anniversary of Iceland being Christian in 2000. The second amazing thing about Thingvellir is it is the place where the North American and Eurasian plates are diverging. The North American and Eurasian plates move apart a few centimeters per year, exposing new ground. The further away from the valley you get, the older the rocks. This means that the Thingvellir valley is literally the place where God is still creating the world. Amazing!

Walking through Thingvellir was a sacred experience. Sometimes when I am in a place where great history has taken place, like walking across the battlefield at Gettysburg or through the halls of Congress, I can almost feel the presence of those who walked there before me. The feeling at Thingvellir was similar, but there was an overwhelming sense of foreignness as well. Iceland’s history is so much older than America’s, and thanks to the sagas, in some ways so much more preserved, despite its age. It was amazing to feel that richness of history, to know that I was walking in the same places that ancient people had walked. And yet there was also this very real sense of walking through someone else’s history. It was an honor to be invited to walk through a place that holds so much sacredness for the Icelandic people. And then there was the absolutely stunning geology. The continental divide only comes above sea level at two places, Iceland and the Great Rift Valley in Africa, so the geology at Thingvellir is truly one of a kind. To be in a place where the earth is so alive has its own sense of sacredness. The active presence of God still working on the creation of the world was almost palpable. Words cannot capture the sense of today, so I will quit this post. All I can really say is Amen.

Alpha and Omega, Beginning and End, the One Who Is, and Who Was, and Who Is to Come, thank you for your active presence in this world. Thank you for the rich history that reminds us of who we are and the new gifts that point us forward into the future. Grant us the hindsight to look behind us and the foresight to look ahead. Amen.