Coalait is a Gaelic word for a belief that permeates religious culture. It means "thin places," when the veil between the worlds of physical and spiritual is so transparent that physical beings can sense the existence of the world beyond. It's how I imagine ESP--extra sensory perception. I like to picture it as an icy lake or frozen pond where the sun has melted a patch that is watery and reflects the blue sky--the thinnest place.

The Holy Spirit accesses people to thin places. For some, those moments occur at shrines, in temples, cathedrals or other buildings reserved for religious activity. Sometimes, thinness happens during assemblies for praise and worship. Music is a powerful conductor to a thin place.

The beauty of natural places draws seekers to thin places such as the frozen landscape I described. Stone Henge, Niagara Falls, and Grand Canyon are famous for producing awe. Treasured places such as Taughannock Falls bring the presence of heaven closer to earth. Thin places can be found in books and film productions. It's wherever people experience the presence of God and are drawn to worship Him in their soul.

Prayer is a powerful coalait. Calling on Jesus thins me. Praying with expectancy generates an empowering of my faith. To say it and then believe it will happen emboldens my spirit with courage and merges mind and heart with will and action. Prayer pulls the totality of who I am into focus and the result is the movement of other worldly forces--the supernatural--within this worldly realm--the natural. Time touches eternity, and the point of contact is transparent.

Often we get stuck in our ways, rutted in predictability.
Unhappy. Unchildlike. Opaque.
We try to look out our windows and we see smudges all over them. Children leave their fingerprints all over the windows and walls. Children are dependent on others for a very long time; in some ways all their lives. Jesus says that unless I change and become like a child, born of water--the natural-- and spirit--the supernatural, I will not enter the door to His kingdom. Jesus celebrates dependence, incompetence, need, and my dirty fingers all over the door frame.

For a more eloquent perspective on thin places, read this.