I’m having a lovely holiday on the small Island of Iona off the West coast of Scotland. It’s gloriously remote, (we took 3 ferries to get here though you can do it in 2), it’s only 3 miles long and you have to get a permit to bring a vehicle onto the island. People call it a ‘thin place’ – the veil between earth and heaven is thinner here – and I know what they mean. The colours and vastness of the sea and sky are more pronounced somehow. It’s teeming with wildlife. The house where I’m staying has views of the sea on three sides and there’s a 15th century Abbey in the garden!
We took a boat trip to Staffa and the variety of wildlife and geographical features in that short morning was literally awe-inspiring. From dolphins to puffins, from turquoise waters to columnar basalt – how can you find words to express the beauty, the glory, the joy? The Psalms are full of the words of people who are experiencing something similar.
I came home and opened my Bible – clearly I was not alone in my feelings of awe and wonder. In the words of Psalm 8:
“Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory in the heavens.”
When we get a glimpse of that glory it points us towards our Creator God who designed and made it all with such artistry, expansiveness and humour. I turned to Psalm 104: 24-25:
“How many are your works, Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number – living things both large and small.”
We were lucky enough to see some of those creatures – from the elegant dolphins breaking the surface with their curvaceous fins, to the cheeky puffins flying in clouds overhead – living proof that our God has a sense of humour!
The journalling fell onto the page as I tried to express my sense of praise and gratitude for being part of all this. You can watch a little video here of some of my musings:
P.S. This site has just gone live and will be the sister site of Creative Journalling UK when it grows some more content…!
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