Reflection: Stones of Witness 

It’s said there are places where heaven dips to earth, and we catch a glimpse of the holy. They’re called thin places. Ancient Celts not only gave them that name but marked them and imbued sacredness in them with cairns – piles of rocks. From way, way back, we’ve been marking spots with rocks. 

The sun is setting and like any traveller, Jacob knows when to call it a day. He simply bivouacs, with a rock to keep his head off the damp ground. He’s not just an exhausted traveller. He’s on the run from his brother, in a foreign place, vulnerable and unprotected. No sooner his head hits the ‘pillow’ he’s off and dreaming. He sees earth rise to heaven and heaven sag to earth as God’s messengers wend their way between the two. He sees the Lord himself! He hears him promise personal blessing, protection and homecoming. Jacob wakes trembling in fear and awe. Jacob knows he’s in a thin place.  

A seemingly random place, for Jacob, becomes very significant. This is a place of worship. A place of resolve. At this place he makes his father’s God his own God. And at this place of mutual commitment X marks the spot…with a rock.  

There’s nothing sacred about the actual rock (unlike pagan piles or poles that were supposedly home to spirit-gods); nothing numinous about thin places. But Jacob will later return to this spot; this Bethel, this House-of-God (Genesis 35). That’s the point of the rock. Revisit revelations of God. Rehearse promises and commitments.  

Prayer: 

I’m reminded by Jacob’s pillow-rock memorial that you, God, are personal and gracious in your dealings with mankind; self-revealing and committed to every promise. But there’s an even thinner place where you meet us. It’s marked by a cross and empty tomb. That’s where you embraced lost-and-guilty-me as your adopted child. Bring me back to that place often, so I continue to be ‘lost in wonder, love and praise’(Love Divine, All Loves Excelling hymn by Charles Wesley).