Devotional – March 22, 2021

Pastor Tim’s Devotional – March 22, 2020
“Thin Places”

Scripture Reading – Exodus 19:16-19

On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, as well as a thick cloud on the mountain, and a blast of a trumpet so loud that all the people who were in the camp trembled. Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God. They took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the Lord had descended upon it in fire; the smoke went up like the smoke of a kiln, while the whole mountain shook violently. As the blast of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses would speak and God would answer him in thunder.

While the Bible affirms that God is present in all of creation, there are places where the veil between the Divine and the earthly feels especially thin. Places where you are swept away with a sense of the holy. Places that radiate something of the power and holiness of God.

In the Hebrew scriptures, Mount Sinai is remembered as an especially thin place. After consecrating themselves for two days (Exodus 19:9-11), the people took their stand at the foot of the mountain on the morning of the third day, where they waited with great anticipation and expectation to be in the presence of the Lord.

We all have thin places where we go with anticipation and expectation to meet with the Lord. Places that have become set aside. Places where it is a bit easier to encounter God. I have many. The kitchen table where I am typing this as the sun comes up. The park by my house. The sanctuary at Desert Spring. These are just a few. What places come to mind for you?

Yesterday, we returned to in-person worship at Desert Spring. How good it was to stand again in that thin place, where I have experienced the presence of the Lord so many times. What is important to remember is that our experience isn’t just about the place. Like the Israelites, it is about our desire to go there so that we can meet with the Lord. It is about our memory of the place where we have felt God’s presence so often in the past. It is about our hunger and thirst for the presence of God.

As we prepare ourselves to celebrate God’s awesome work of resurrection “on the morning of the third day,” may we be filled with great anticipation and expectation to be in the presence of the Lord.

God Bless You,

Pastor Tim