I am thinking today about thin places, those moments when the veil between heaven and earth seems very thin, sacred moments that emerge from a spiritual practice or a deep conversation that pierces the soul. A thin place can be shared with another seeker, and, in fact, finding a thin place might be even more meaningful in the presence of a friend.
It seems that “thin place” is a term that was used for millennia to describe a place in time where the space between heaven and earth grows thin, a moment in time where the sacred and the secular seem to meet. In thin places, the distance between heaven and earth collapses and we’re able to catch glimpses of the divine, or the transcendent, or the Infinite.
“Heaven and earth,” the Celtic saying goes, “are only three feet apart, but in thin places that distance is even shorter.”
John Pavlovitz describes it like this:
Religious people have often talked about the thin places; those moments when the wall between humanity and divinity is like onion-skin.Â
It seems that a thin place is a holy moment. It is a sacred moment, even without a hymn or a prayer or a pew or a minister. It a place of “God with us.”
Thin places can transform us or unmask us. Thin places are often sacred sites or buildings — like a temple or a mosque, like a shrine or a monastery, like a cathedral or an old country church. But thin places do not have to be sacred buildings or holy sites. A forest or a flowing stream can be a thin place. A thin place might be found on a mountaintop or in a verdant valley or even in your back yard.
Thin places don’t always have to be special places or “holy” times. We can experience thin places anywhere and every day.
And that’s what we need to do. In a world so filled with threatening events and people that frighten us, we need to rest in thin places where we might just find that we are in a place where the space between humanity and divinity is ever so delicate, thin enough to envelop us in the comfort of God’s grace.
Let’s stop “life” for a moment and rest in a thin place. Meet me there.
God of the Sparrow 🌱 By Kathy Manis Findley 
I remember standing beside the road at a place where a car with five college kids slid into the river, on a winter night. It was a thin place where death and life met. The hospital chapel, a sanctuary or holy space of pilgrimage are all thin places of grace. I think that ‘Thin places” are places where myriads of prayers of God’s people have been prayed.
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Thank you for sharing that experience, Shirley. I always love hearing your thoughts. Blessings to you.
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