The Ice Hotel

THE ICE HOTEL

In January 2001 Canada's first Ice Hotel was opened. That's right -- Ice Hotel. The hotel is constructed of 12,000 tons of snow and 400 tons of ice covering more than 30,000 square feet. It has ceilings over 18 feet high, walls covered with original artwork, and furnishings carved out of ice blocks. The Ice Hotel Quebec-Canada is composed of 32 rooms and theme suites, two ice art galleries, a magnificent ice chapel, two exhibition areas, an ice cinema, and an immense lobby with an ice chandelier lit by fiber optics. The four-foot thick walls are ice. The floors are ice. The ceilings are ice. The furniture and the decorations are made of ice. Yes, even the BEDS are ice! If you get too cold in this environment, you can warm yourself in one of the hotel's Jacuzzis or stand by one of its functional fireplaces.

Guests may spend the night in an individually designed ice room, snuggled up in thick polar sleeping bags, on deer pelts and mattress over the illuminated ice bed. Visitors are invited to look around the hotel and marvel at the different themed rooms. They must be careful of the impressive sculptures dotted around the place -- one may bump into a huge ice bear or American Indian, even a frozen Statue of Liberty!

Reservations are limited -- not only by the number of rooms (32 rooms and suites with a capacity to accommodate more than 84 people per night), but also by the time frame that the hotel is open. You see, you can only make reservations for The Ice Hotel from early January to April 1st, because after that, it begins to melt...*

Like the fabulous Ice Hotel, we understand from the Scriptures that this WORLD with its powers and values is passing away (see 1 John 2:15-17). And one day -- "the Day of the Lord" -- "the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will "melt" with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up" (2 Peter 3:10). This world is temporary, to be replaced with "a new heaven and earth" (2 Peter 3:13) conforming to God's desire.

Therefore, "since everything will be destroyed in this way," Peter asks, "What kind of people ought you to be?" (2 Peter 3:11). His answer: "You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming" (2 Peter 3:11-12 NIV). He calls us to live here and now by the values of that new era, rather than expending all our time and energy on things so impermanent. In short, God wants us to be Christians, for only Christians will live eternally with Him in the place "in which righteousness dwells" (2 Peter 3:13).

The Ice Hotel presents a challenge: Are WE expending our time and energy on things that will soon "melt" away?"

The world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever" (1 John 2:17).

Won't YOU do the will of God?

From David A. Sargent