Our time in Norway was truly beautiful and blessed, but we had to get past an initial, horrible hurdle. Our luggage was lost on the way over.

Four days in Norway. No clothes. No toiletries. No camera. Nothing.

Just the clothes on our backs, and some socks and a toothbrush from a tourist shop in a remote Norwegian village. Oh yeah, and some ‘Norway knickers’ :) (replacement underwear with Norwegian flag design hee, hee).

Losing our suitcase was just one of a string of stunningly bad muck ups that happened before even touching down in this beautiful country.

When we arrived our hosts told us that they had had their luggage lost on the same airline, never to be found. The temptation to freak out that first night was great. You don’t even want to know the precious things in that bag.

So our holiday started with a bit of a test for my faith in God. His sovereignty, His faithfulness, that this would be used for our good Romans 8:28.

At the last possible minute, one hour before we were due to go back to London, a taxi arrived at our guest house, couriering our lost case from the airport. Thank you God!

The thing that upset me most with losing our bag was that my camera was in it. I had put so much into planning these trips to the fjords, and I was so looking forward to photographing what we saw. I really was sad about it. In the end, we bought makeshift plastic cameras. I was concerned that the quality would be pretty poor, but Michael reassured me it would probably be better than I thought. I am pretty happy with how the photos turned out and have put together a slideshow of some of them here.

Norway was extremely beautiful.

The kind of beauty you wish you could hold onto. It just seemed there was no end to the exquisiteness as we travelled across the country, and through the fjords. The vast mountains, the waterfalls, the lakes, the pine, the colour of the water – it was luminous. Midnight blue, aqua. There was such a sense of freshness. And tranquillity.

Being in this kind of setting for me has this way of ministering. It instils peace. It restores and brings joy and newness. I really love it.

The other aspect is that it draws my focus to God. I am so often in awe of creation. I don’t know if you’ve seen the slideshow below, but if you have, do you remember that waterfall? Kjosfossen waterfall. Standing before it was breathtaking. The force of it. Such power. White water crashing. The sound of it. The feel of it, spraying on your skin. In these moments, my focus is lifted to God, and thankfulness to Him. That “all things were made through Him, and without Him, nothing was made that was made” John 1:3. That His creation bears witness to Who He is, and to His existence. “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen” Romans 1:20.

And the mountains. They were stunningly huge! Hundreds and hundreds metres towards the sky. Imposing, immovable, magnificent. Permanence, steadfastness. You know what I thought of in their shadow? That psalm where David describes God’s righteousness. “Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains” Psalm 36:6. Wow. Experiencing them in this way, their utter magnitude and steadfastness, helped me to understand this attribute of Who God is in a deeper kind of way. His righteousness is like them. Amazing.

And one last thing about His creation, it actually ministered hope to me in the face of losing all our things. As we flew to Norway, high in the summer sky, the sun was beginning to set. I do not remember seeing cloud formations as exquisite as that evening. Huge, billowy, candyfloss clouds as if outlined with gold, in the pink and amber sky. I wished I had my camera then :) . The thing is though, when I was tempted to let worry overtake me a few hours later (after finding out about our missing stuff), the thought kept coming to me, if my God created those magnificent clouds, those mighty mountains, what on earth am I worried about? A missing bag is nothing compared with that awesomeness. I can rest in the knowledge of His complete sovereignty and power.

And He did not fail us.

The lost bag was found. Michael and I were able to enjoy being together. And the scenery we experienced was extraordinary.

~ by Birgit on August 27, 2008.

Posted in Bible, Christianity, Devotional, Faith, God, Jesus, Photos and Slideshows, Travel