All in Creation

What we can learn from Celtic Christians about ‘Thin Places’

I was in an online leadership meeting last week and Paul Maconochie who was leading the call was talking about Celtic Christianity and the idea of thin places.  He was telling us that for the Celts, certain places and certain times had special recognition for the Celts as being ‘thin places’ or times when God’s presence felt more accessible.  It made a lot of sense to me and so I decided to look into it a bit more...

Getting bored of church inside four walls

Meeting God in creation this month is making me feel like the woman at the well in John 4.  Day after day she endured the heat of the day desperate for water - the essential life-giving water. She did what was necessary to get the water she needed.  I don’t know what it tasted like - was it even fresh-tasting? Did it have bits of sand and grit in it? Does it matter? It was necessary for survival.  

And yet Jesus meets her at this daily routine and tells her that the water she has been enduring many a mid-day sun to obtain is nothing compared to His water.  Her water is from a non-moving water source - a well. It sustains but there is nothing beautiful about it. It is hard to get and requires daily drudgery.  His water, on the other hand, His living water, He compares to a natural spring - which never dries up and is always available and whose taste is exquisitely refreshing....

Why I now love the sea

As a child I always preferred a swimming pool to the beach.  Swimming pools were generally warmer and there wasn’t salt or sand to get into your eyes or waves to knock you over.  And when you got out you weren’t covered in sand.  Swimming pools met my desire to control my environment and predictability...