The volcano began erupting for the second time in a month on Wednesday, sending ash several miles into the air. Even the polished and erudite news anchors are having a time pronouncing southern Iceland's tongue-twister volcano Eyjafjallajokull. (Repeat after me, ay-yah-FYAH'-plah-yer-kuh-duhl.) But everyone seems to know what it is anyway. Airports across northern and western Europe are virtually closed, costing a reported $200 million a day. World leaders are grounded. Millions have missed weddings, funerals, and business appointments.

The weather crews are worried too. This could be the death knell to talk about global warming for a while. According to the National Weather Service, the big problem won't be the volcano with the big name. Nearby is sister volcano Katla. "If lava flowing from Eyjafjallajokull melts the glaciers that hold down the top of Katla, then Katla could blow its top, pumping gigantic amounts of ash into the atmosphere."

Scientists say history has proven that whenever the Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupts, Katla always follows—it's just a matter of time. The grim prognosis is that this chain reaction "would likely send the world, including the USA, into an extended deep freeze."

"When Katla went off in the 1700s, the USA suffered a very cold winter," says Gary Hufford, a scientist with the Alaska Region of the National Weather Service. "To the point, the Mississippi River froze just north of New Orleans and the East Coast, especially New England, had an extremely cold winter.

So now I guess its global cooling.

Fox News reports, "In Iceland, torrents of water have carried away chunks of ice the size of small houses. More floods from melting waters are expected as long as the volcano keeps erupting—and in 1821, the same volcano managed to erupt for more than a year." Uh-oh.

Earthquakes. Tsunamis. Volcanos. The persecution of the Church. The pain and suffering of the saints. Do these all fall into the same classification? According to Romans 8, they do:

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope;
because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.
Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.

For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees?

But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. (vv. 18-25)

Eyjafjallajokull, our fellow traveler on the Groaning Planet, is—unconsciously of course—waiting for the same moment I am. It is called the unveiling, the manifestation of the sons of God. Then with our glorified bodied we shall be ready to be placed alongside the Chief Son, whose body is the perfect prototype of ours. At last, fallen humanity by grace alone will be lifted up, not to where Adam once dwelt "a little lower than the angels" but above them, seated with Christ on His own throne.

The rest of creation had to be brought down with man's moral collapse, because a fallen head could not rule over an unfallen creation. But when redeemed and glorified saints shall be placed as sons in the Family Business to "reign with Him," then God shall prove that every blade of grass and flower and bird and molecule and galaxie shall reap the benefits of the work single-handedly accomplished by the Man on the middle tree.