Recognize the Thin Places

There are moments when the boundary between heaven and earth, or the physical and the spiritual, seems to dissolve. The ancient Celtics and Celtic Christians referred to such glimpses of the eternal as “thin places.” Many authors have written about thin places, and where such places can be found. I recognize my thin places when I feel a particularly strong connection to the past and its teachers, to the point of almost “being there.”

It could be a river carving through a valley…

Frio RIver, Texas

 

Or it could be a sacred place…

Church in Fredericksburg, TX

 

Or maybe a gathering storm.

San Antonio sky

 

The important part is to recognize the thin places and keep those moments with me. They have given me hope, inspired lyrical poetry and even sustained me through months of sleeping in a park. When I need strength, inspiration or peace, I thank God for these times and places, which remind me that He meets us where we are and knows our deepest desires before we even ask.

Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Isaiah 30:20

Then he turned to his disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.  For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”           Luke 10:23-24