Thin Places

When I was younger and lived in my hometown in B.C. I would often flee to a local park whenever I needed time to think, pray and catch a sense of God.  This park was located beside a river, and it had a small beach where the fine sand quickly gave way to behemoth rocks that were smoothed down from centuries of rushing water. I would climb up onto the dry rocks until I reached a secluded place.  Sometimes I would journal there; at other times I would read; and still at other times I would cry or pray. Whatever my choice of activity, however, those rocks were a place where I always met God. They were a thin place where the spiritual realm seemed much more closer and accessible than it normally was - where the haze that usually obstructed my vision was lifted so I could see with a bit more clarity the closeness of God. 

Thin places are places that are touched by the presence of God. They are locations "where the membrane between this world and the other world, between the material and the spiritual, [is] very permeable" (Sheldrake, 7).  They are sacred spaces that function as gateways, or peepholes, into the spiritual realm, where God is revealed to us "as both transcendent and immanent, beyond us and within us" (Hamma, 46).  They are places of inward formation.  The landscape guides us to an experience of the holy and leaves an impression on our souls.

A pilgrimage is a journey that is always connected to a material sense of place.  Every step of the journey happens in the physical world and has spiritual implications. We encounter God within the natural landscape of our journey.  God's presence is revealed through the beauty and structure of his wonderful creation. Pilgrimage is a ritual that helps us discover sacred dimension of place (Hamma, 46):

1. It prepares us to enter places that have already been recognized by others as being holy
2. It leads us to discover and mark out other holy places that are formative to our own lives
3. It engages us in the practice of awareness towards the holiness of place. It puts us in a frame of mind where we are more open and receptive to the sensation of the workings of God's Holy Spirit.

Any pilgrim who seeks God attentively throughout the journey will inevitably encounter a thin place.  It may be by a river, looking at a sunset, in the middle of a busy intersection,or kneeling in front of a shrine, but in those place God suddenly becomes more real. It is these places that impact our souls, connecting our spiritual journey to the physical realm.

The Bible is full of a sense of place. It tells a story that takes place in the context of Earthly locations where God's presence was revealed, changing the course of history.  Jacob's story from Genesis 28:10-17 is a beautiful example of a sacred encounter with God in a thin place.

Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There above it stood the LORD, and he said: “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”  When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”

 Throughout the history of Biblical scholarship this story of Jacob's ladder has often been interpreted allegorically as a spiritual metaphor, representing the ascent to Heaven through virtue.  Hamma points out, however, that the Biblical text actually emphasizes a physical dimension, and not a spiritual one:

What the text actually says is that "the LORD stood beside him."  In other words, God is not at the top of the ladder, up in heaven, but at the foot of the ladder, on earth....Thus Jacob proclaims, "The Lord is in this place - and I did not know it" (emphasis added).  It is the realization that God was there that made it a holy place. (62)

Our lives our never separated from the context of place.  The Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega y Gasset wrote, "Tell me the landscape in which you live, and I will tell you who you are" (Sellner, 32).  The land connects us both to our stories and to the greater story.  It roots our lives within the context of the here and now, but also holds a sense of memory.  Place stands testament to the passage of time; it has observed the comings and goings of generations long past.  It is a witness of God's presence here on earth, and it is intimately connected with our own formational stories. We leave our mark on the earth, but it also leaves its mark on us.