Sunrises… and Thin Places

I love sunrises. That’s why you see one on this Web site. There’s something special about the peace and quiet and clean smells of sunrise, that chance to start it all over again, no matter how challenging the day before was.

I see a lot of sunrises in the DC area where I live. I’ve been blessed to see them on both sides of the Atlantic, and on Maui and from many other Pacific locations. But the sunrises I most remember were those I shared with my friend Julie Miller at the Green Lake, Wisconsin, Christian Writers Conference, in particular the 2002 edition.

I was very uncomfortable about speaking at the conference that year, given that I hadn’t belonged to a church in thirty years, but agreed to fill in for a colleague because I had a big family reunion in northern Wisconsin the following week.

Things at Green Lake didn’t get off to a good start for me due to a lot of communication miscues. On the conference’s fourth day, I decided to get up early and take a walk to clear my head. I ran into Julie Miller, the conference facilitator and an ordained American Baptist minister. I asked why she was up to so early.

“I get up every morning here for the sunrise,” Julie said. “It’s magnificent. The sun sits on the horizon for quite a while and then all at once, it’s up and the rays shoot across the water all the way to the shore.”

“You do that every morning?”

“Yep. It’s a good place to talk to God. Green Lake is a thin place.”

I took a deep breath. “What do you mean by that?” And for whatever reason, Julie didn’t laugh.

“Thin place means it’s easy to reach God here. Want to sit and watch the water for a while?”

And so we did, side by side on a bench. Neither of us said a word for fifteen minutes or more. I began to feel a peace inside that I couldn’t describe. It was the closest I’d been to true prayer in decades, maybe ever.

A lot of other God moments happened at Green Lake in the years I was a presenter there. And Julie and I shared quite a few sunrises, often singing “Morning Has Broken” together and arguing over whether the word was “recreation” or “re-creation.” But whenever I hear the phrase “thin place,” I think of that quiet morning… and Julie… and that anyone can start over, any time.