FireFeet
06-24-2005, 02:19 PM
“Stand Fast In A Thin Place.”
A thin place is a Celtic phrase that refers to a moment in time when the distance between heaven and earth, between God and us seems much smaller. It is a moment in which the divide between man and God is thin.
She is a woman who is beautiful in pain. Through her eyes you can see the scars on her heart from too many years of marriage to an abusive alcoholic husband. Her body shows the ravages of an unceasing battle with cancer. And on a chain around her neck, she wears two Catholic medallions of saints that are all that she has left of a son who was taken from her before she was willing to let him go. She has a depth of beauty to her soul, a complex wisdom in her heart. She seems almost ethereal, as though she stands with one foot already in heaven.
With a poetic grace and a lyrical aching, she unfolds the story of her life. I long to minister to her and to offer her God’s hope and wisdom. But I know that what she needs is for someone to finally hear the secret agony that has molded her soul. I know that what she needs is someone to hold her hands and weep the tears that she is unable to shed. I know that what she needs is a vessel in which to pour the wisdom that has cost her too much.
As my tears splash onto our clasped hands and she sings the story of her pain, I comprehend at a new level a profound truth. All of life’s suffering and grief and doubt and uncertainty can cause us to become stalwart and bitter, reclusive and cold. We can run and try to find rest in a place we design and call safe. Or we can allow the agony to lead us to a place of wisdom and love, peace and communion. We can run to a place where we find ourselves caught up in the everlasting arms of love. The torments of this life can lead us further from God…or they can lead us to a new place of discovering His goodness.
As she finishes her story, she removes her son’s medallions, perhaps her most valuable possession, from around her neck. She presses them into my hand, and in a voice that hints of songs of angels, she whispers, “Stand fast in a thin place.”
A thin place is a Celtic phrase that refers to a moment in time when the distance between heaven and earth, between God and us seems much smaller. It is a moment in which the divide between man and God is thin.
She is a woman who is beautiful in pain. Through her eyes you can see the scars on her heart from too many years of marriage to an abusive alcoholic husband. Her body shows the ravages of an unceasing battle with cancer. And on a chain around her neck, she wears two Catholic medallions of saints that are all that she has left of a son who was taken from her before she was willing to let him go. She has a depth of beauty to her soul, a complex wisdom in her heart. She seems almost ethereal, as though she stands with one foot already in heaven.
With a poetic grace and a lyrical aching, she unfolds the story of her life. I long to minister to her and to offer her God’s hope and wisdom. But I know that what she needs is for someone to finally hear the secret agony that has molded her soul. I know that what she needs is someone to hold her hands and weep the tears that she is unable to shed. I know that what she needs is a vessel in which to pour the wisdom that has cost her too much.
As my tears splash onto our clasped hands and she sings the story of her pain, I comprehend at a new level a profound truth. All of life’s suffering and grief and doubt and uncertainty can cause us to become stalwart and bitter, reclusive and cold. We can run and try to find rest in a place we design and call safe. Or we can allow the agony to lead us to a place of wisdom and love, peace and communion. We can run to a place where we find ourselves caught up in the everlasting arms of love. The torments of this life can lead us further from God…or they can lead us to a new place of discovering His goodness.
As she finishes her story, she removes her son’s medallions, perhaps her most valuable possession, from around her neck. She presses them into my hand, and in a voice that hints of songs of angels, she whispers, “Stand fast in a thin place.”