Have you ever rounded a corner, or entered a building, and suddenly you stop in surprise at what lies before you and how you feel inside?  It’s a feeling of being nearer to Heaven than you ever felt before?  I’m not sure whether women feel the strange sensations that sometimes come from what they call “the thin places” more than men?  I think not. 

There is a Celtic saying that ”Heaven and Earth are only three feet apart, but in the thin places that distance is even smaller”.  So this is what they must mean by "thin".

In the busy world of everyday living, we often miss these thin places.  I have to admit that I have only just heard places that you and I will surely recognize, referred to as “The Thin Places”, but I think you all will know of such places.  Think back over your life to the special places that mean so much to you, places that have filled your soul with beauty or happiness, and I think these are the places that they mean. 

I was once flying in a big aeroplane from London to Tokyo.  One of the places in this world that for me was definitely not a “thin place” was Siberia.  I looked from the plane window and there below us was this wild, wild wilderness, so white, so desolate, with what seemed to me to be scratchings on the surface.  Someone told me that they were oil pipelines.  Does anyone know?  The meal came round, the film came on and then finished, the tea came round and I had a nap, and still below us was this wild, wild wilderness.  The thought crossed my mind “Dear God don’t let us go down here for I’ll never find my way back home.“  In my mind this wasn’t a “thin place”, a place the Celtic saying describes when heaven and earth are close together.  This was a frightening place where nobody would want to live their life or, if the plane went down, end it.  We stopped at Tokyo Airport for five hours.  This must have been the middle of the night by our time, but tired I certainly was not for the excitement of an adventure on my own – three months, in fact, in Australia – kept my mind fully awake.

 The “thin place” came during the next journey.  I looked out of the aeroplane window into the pitch black of night as we swept onwards towards Australia.  Suddenly a line appeared in the blackness - a red and gold thin line -  and as I watched it expanded.  It became belt size, then larger and it was a wonderful experience to see it grow.  Perhaps you could describe it rather like someone opening a door from a room which was pitch black onto a room full of light.  How can I put into words how sunrise over Northern Australia can fill the dark sky bit by bit until all the glory of Heaven itself seemed to stretch across the eye? A burst of fire colours?   Almost impossible to put into words such a picture.  If this is what they mean by a “thin place” , then I think I would understand.  I can only say that a vision like this is a rare experience - well for me.  Perhaps pilots don't think so. 

Places of beauty and peace, I think, are important to us all for we come back to places of bustle and busyness feeling refreshed.  I feel that all too often people don’t put the “thin places” into their lives as an escape and as a place for recharging the batteries.  Perhaps this is why there seems to be so many people suffering from stress today.  Whatever is life all about if there are no “thin places” put in the human world? 

Have any of you any special places that stand out in your mind as a “thin place” as the Celtics called them?