…how can people avoid what they don’t know
is going to happen?
None of us can hold back our spirit from departing.
None of us has the power to prevent the day of our death.
There is no escaping that obligation…
(Strokkur Geysir, Golden Circle, Iceland)
Don’t long for “the good old days.”
This is not wise.
Accept the way God does things,
for who can straighten what he has made crooked?
…God has made everything beautiful for its own time.
He has planted eternity in the human heart,
but even so,
people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work
from beginning to end.
(Þingvellir Drekkingarhylur, Iceland)
The servants who are ready and waiting for his return
will be rewarded.
I tell you the truth, he himself will seat them,
put on an apron, and serve them as they sit and eat!
He may come in the middle of the night
or just before dawn.
But whenever he comes,
he will reward the servants who are ready.
(Þingvellir Drekkingarhylur drowning pool, Iceland)
Beware! Guard against every kind of greed.
Life is not measured by how much you own.
…I ponder all your great works
and think about what you have done.
I lift my hands to you in prayer.
I thirst for you as parched land thirsts for rain.
Dyrhólaey peninsula, Iceland
Give thanks to him who made the heavenly lights—
His faithful love endures forever.
Dyrhólaey peninsula, Iceland
Have mercy on us, LORD, have mercy,
for we have had our fill of contempt.
We have had more than our fill of the scoffing of the proud
and the contempt of the arrogant.
