Thin Places

Mary DeMuth defines a thin place  as a time when the division between this world and the eternal fades. Have you experienced one?

I experienced a Thin Place on a  mission trip providing anesthesia to those in need.

Our team was summoned to the bedside of a young mother in labor who had been seizing for 3 hours.  With medications from my bag, her seizures stopped. We rushed her to surgery where the surgery team waited for me to put her to sleep.  As the anesthetic reached her blood stream, the surgeon cut in a race against the drugs reaching her baby. 

The tiny infant was born limp and blue. With a burst of  Spanish, a doctor thrust the baby toward me.

I only had one oxygen source. I alternated breathing for the mother, then the baby until a tiny cry gave us hope. In the nursery an IV was started with a tiny catheter I’d packed and brought with me. The IV saved the baby’s life.

Now, my attention was on the mother.

“How is she?” the doctor asked.

I honestly didn’t know if she would wake up or  there was brain damage. I reversed my medications and waited. She took a breath and opened her eyes.  There was joy in the Operating Room, but more joy in heaven when she accepted the gift of Salavation when told how she’d been saved.

I had prayed for guidance. Prayed to have what I needed, prayed to be used. I was, in a Thin Place where eternity entered our world.