What a picture! This is a snapshot from a guy who climbed a mountain overlooking the eruption in Iceland that is wreaking havoc on all kinds of travel plans and logistical shipments of goods. The impact has been worse than the chaos of 9/11 even, one news report said. I have some friends who are going overseas to be missionaries who are currently stuck in Europe, waiting to travel on.

But aside from all of that, I couldn’t help but think this image looked similar to the depictions of God’s glory and His visibly-manifested presence in Exodus 19:16-20; Ezekiel 1:4-28; Isaiah 6:1-7; and several places in Revelation.

On a related note, I find it interesting how all of these descriptions parallel that of the description given of Christ in His risen, ascended, interceding glory in Revelation 1:12-20. In all of these instances where God makes Himself known in power, either through visible expressions or by the Person of Christ Himself, the people being spoken to fall on their faces in terror at His holiness.

This is yet another great picture of the unity of the Old and New Testaments. Jesus is the same in the New Testament as He was in the Old, the Second Person of the Trinity from all eternity who stands in omnipotent power over all creation, who created and sustains the world by the power of His word (Colossians 1:16, Hebrews 1:1-3). This is the risen Savior and Lord, who though He was God, united Himself to man in order to redeem us from the curse of the law, the curse that should have fallen on us, by absorbing our deserved wrath in His own body on the tree (Galatians 3:10-14).

This is the Lord Christ we serve, not the frail, powerless, yet wishful Jesus of pop-Christianity. And the image above is a reflection of His raw, omnipotent power that has complete sovereign control over every aspect of our lives, including that of nature itself. May we all submit to His will over against ours. Who are we to contend with Him who has this kind of power? How amazing that He delivers any of us from His wrath to come. Stand in wonder.