thin places

When you sit up on top of Dun I (dun-ee) on Iona in Scotland it is hard not to hear whispers of God. I don't really know why this is - a friend described Iona as a "thin place" - a place where the skin between heaven and earth is rubbed thin, a place where God is in the air more obviously that in some other places.

Reading the account of the Transfiguration I am reminded of "thin places". Jesus is changed before the eyes of his disciples - but he is not changed into something new - the change simple reflects who he more truly is - the place is thin and they see him more as heaven sees him than as earth sees him.

This is a great thought to hold onto - can we allow God to pull apart the fibers of our humanity, to peel back the veil which separates us from the Divine so that we can be as God sees us. What would that look like and what of that can we take into the every day?

Peter, of course, wants to build something, he wants to keep them there - but thin places tend to be places which we have to return from - mountain tops, great joy or sorrow - they are not habitations. What we have to do is, somehow, understand ourselves to be who we are in those places where God touches us and reminds us that we are loved and wonderful when we retreat from the mountain. Even when, in the bustle of the everyday, we cannot feel the touch and breath of God, we know that it is there.

I wonder what the disciples felt as they came down from the mountain - it was back to business pretty quickly and Jesus seems somewhat irritated by the constant demands upon him. But as they watched him work did they remember, did they brush against him just to test the flesh, did they look at his eyes and imagine the universe, did they listen to his words and hear God?

Thin places, where God truly reflects in us, are sometimes obvious and sometimes they catch us by surprise. But they are around and the more we allow God to hold us in them the thinner the veil becomes elsewhere - perhaps that is who the saints were and are - those for whom the veil is always thin - perhaps the veil can even be worn thin in someone's humanity itself.

However the mystery works - and it is always better to get caught up in it than to analyze it - God really does shine in us in many ways. Allow the veil to be thin, to wear thin so that as we walk through life we are as God sees us, precious and beloved, prisms of light and grace.