Thin Places

In my mid-twenties, some pastor friends and I packed a backpack, grabbed our hiking shoes, and hopped in the car at 6pm and drove from the Bay Area to Yosemite National Park. We arrived at 1am, donned our head-lamps, and began to make our way up a trail in the dark. 

Giant silhouettes of trees loomed about us. We traversed the well-worn trail, summited small ridges, the small light and map our only guide. We didn't see one other person. After a few hours, we took a brief break and watched our breath float out into the cold. 

After hours of hiking in the dark, we arrived at a steep incline of rock--the famous heights of Half Dome. We gripped the rope railing, and tried to steady our feet on wood planks that had been drilled into the rock. It took significant time to balance our way up, but above us, we could see the dark waning. 

The sunlight dawned as we stepped onto the flat, open rockface of Half Dome. We peered over Yosemite Valley at sunrise. We watched the stillness. We listened, and heard only the nothingness of empty air. 

After all the effort and fumbling through the dark, we gazed in wonder at the immense, light-warmed beauty around us. 

Click here to watch Sunday's sermon "Heaven's Coordinates" from The Resting Place series

You know, in Celtic Christianity they have a phrase for places like this, moments of sacred space--they call them "Thin Places."

Thin Places are natural areas where the distance between heaven and earth seems thinnest. It's just feels like God is there. You can't exactly touch Him, but He's touching you.

There have been numerous "Thin Places" I've found in my lifetime. Some of them are habitual spots. Some of them are intended destinations. Some are surprise moments of peace or connection...

But these experiences are intended to point us to the Thin Place. The One who is always an access point between Heaven and Earth. 

"We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen....So spacious is he, so expansive, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross."Colossians 1:15, 19-20 (MSG)

Jesus is the Thin Place. 

When we come into His presence, God designed us to come alive. 

In Jesus, the thinness breaks through. 

He doesn't just create a moment for us, He makes thin-places in us. 

Through Him, all mystery, wonder and beauty are available. 

And our normal lives, even our restless places, become thinner, less opaque, when we make a moment with Him.

Meet Him now. 

Because of Jesus, now is a Thin Place.

And join us Sunday as we consider the great revelation that we who trust Jesus with our lives, can become a Resting Place for His presence today.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Pastor Dave