"I have here, students, a twenty-five pound block of ice which I am going to cut into two pieces and then rejoin them into one piece again. This is going to happen right before your eyes as if by magic, but it isn't magic, it's physics." This is how I introduced one of my favorite demonstrations to a high school physics class. To perform this demonstration I needed a piece of metal wire and two weights. The weights were attached to the two ends of the wire, and the wire was placed over the piece of ice so that the two weights dangled down on each side. Over a period of time the wire seemed to move down through the block of ice, not leaving a trace of its passage. Eventually, the wire passed completely through the block of ice and dropped to the floor. But, miraculously, the ice was still in one piece. The two pieces had rejoined and melded together behind the descending wire. This process of melting and refreezing at temperatures below the melting point is called regelation. The pressure of the wire causes the ice to melt, but when this pressure is released, the water refreezes.
We observe this same process in nature whenever ice is under sufficient pressure to cause melting. Regelation occurs under the Greenland and Antarctica icecaps because of the tremendous weight of the ice above. Core samples thousands of feet deep have revealed that melting and flowing have occurred at the deepest levels. This makes the age dating of such ancient layers unreliable because of the distortion of the layer structure. The reason glaciers move is due to their sliding on a thin layer of water caused by melting of the ice under pressure. Ice skaters glide almost effortlessly across the ice on a thin layer of water formed under the skates due to the weight of the skater concentrated on a knife-edge blade. The ice freezes immediately behind them, so it is almost impossible to see their tracks.
The process of regelation can be a type of our spiritual experience. We think that our faith is solid and unshakable, but then along comes a stressful situation and we melt under the pressure. But if we maintain our relationship with God, there is a renewal, a regelation, and our faith is restored as solid as before, and perhaps even stronger from the experience, with no trace of our former weakness. Of course, the ultimate example is that which occurs when Jesus returns. At that time the great schism between God and His people will be healed, and there will be a reunion of the family of God. Due to the sacrifice of Christ, the bond will be even stronger than it was originally. The wire of sin and the resulting separation will have passed forever; "The great controversy is ended. Sin and sinners are no more. The entire universe is clean. One pulse of harmony and gladness beats through the vast creation"(GC p 678). This is the culmination of what I like to call "spiritual regelation."
