Thin Places

Genesis 28:12And he dreamed: a stairway was set on the ground with its top reaching the sky, and God’s angels were going up and down on it.

Some years ago, Catherine Nance described in a sermon the concept of thin spaces. According to Google, Thin spaces (often called thin places) are unique locations or moments where the boundary between the physical world and the spiritual realm feels exceptionally close. I instantly knew that what Catherine was describing was more than just conjecture but was, in fact, real.

Scripture is full of instances where people experience the very real presence of God. For Jacob, it was a vision of angels ascending and descending on a stairway to heaven. For Moses, it was the burning bush. For Peter, James, and John it was the mount of transfiguration where the countenance of Jesus was transformed and they fell on their faces in awe of the moment. And for Saul, it was a blinding light that knocked him off his horse. Moments when the spiritual is so close to the physical that it is exceptionally real enough to reach out and touch.

While not nearly so dramatic as these encounters, thin spaces have been for me something that I have experienced from time to time but could not adequately describe before. Most often, it comes in the form of music that is so overwhelming that I can no longer sing but simply mouth the words.

“Hear him ye deaf, his praise ye dumb, your loosened tongues employ. Ye blind behold your Savior come and leap ye lame for joy.” Charles Wesley obviously knew the overwhelming joy of being in the presence of Jesus.

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mineOh, what a foretaste of glory divineHeir of salvation, purchase of GodBorn of his Spirit, washed in His bloodThis is my story, this is my songPraising my Savior all the day longThis is my story, this is my songPraising my Savior all the day long

Or...

Angels we have heard on highSweetly singing o'er the plainsAnd the mountains in replyEchoing their joyous strains.Gloria In Excelsis Deo.

In this moment, I am in the thin spaces along with those shepherds.

Sometimes it has been in the liturgy of the sacraments of baptism and communion when it becomes almost impossible to recite those sacred words aloud. I have had moments in delivering home communion where it becomes difficult to get through the words without breaking down.

And sometimes it is simply reciting the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

There is a common phrase, “If you know, you know.” I am persuaded that these experiences are more than simply an emotional response to well written and familiar phrases. There is, I believe, an unmistakable reality of being so close to the spiritual realm, that the physical simply cannot bear it.