The Thin Walls of the Yurt: Living Close to God in Everyday Life

Cecil Taylor’s blog post uses the yurt, a temporary circular dwelling first used by nomadic peoples of the Central Asian steppes, as a way to think about faith. The author notes that yurts can be set up or packed away within a few hours, and that the thickness of their fabric varies with climate. Thicker wool walls suit cold, high-altitude regions, while thinner fabric is used in warmer places. The thinness of those warmer-climate walls is what the author finds most striking as a picture of our relationship with God.

The post contrasts a common image of God as distant, seated on a heavenly throne and needing a powerful telescope to see us, with an older view drawn from Celtic Christianity and later traditions. In that older view, only a thin veil separates heaven and earth, both in prayer and in the crossing from life to death. The author connects that veil to the yurt wall and describes life as a kind of nomadic journey in which we often move on short notice. Throughout, God is only a slim layer of fabric away, with prayers passing through the walls and God answering in return.

The author also acknowledges that people sometimes build thick walls that keep God out of their hearts and lives. Such walls, the post suggests, are made by human hands rather than by God. The closing invitation is to picture your own life as travel in a yurt, remembering that God is near in daily life and at death, and to speak and reach through that thin covering toward God.

The post ends with a note about becoming a free subscriber to Cecil Taylor Ministries, which offers twice-monthly newsletters, event access, resources, and sale codes.

Source: Read the original report