There is the journey to the door, then the pausing at the threshold, making a decision; and finally, the crossing over in to the other region, or else returning to base. Barbara Hepworth, sculptor

You come alive each time you dare to die- let go, move on, bid things goodbye. Anthony de Mello

Thresholds have been described as thin or holy places, as a sacred or liminal space, as points of conversion. In fact, where heaven meets earth. They seem to promise new life, a long awaited and now realised opportunity. Their prospect can also seem daunting, a temptation, a step into and toward the unknown. Thresholds represent the call to, and challenge of, transformation.

A very solid wooden structure, for the purposes of check in, prompting for what fits with you are this point, what is offered, what is invited or laid down as a challenge via various ‘step phrases:

Step Forward, Step Up, Step Down, Step Away, Step Back, Step Aside…

Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. Genesis 2: 5-6

He (Jacob) had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. Genesis 28:11-12

The bare mountain too has fallen into relief behind me. A gentleness has stirred into place. Instead of sheets of flayed rhinoceros, the ice down here has rounded off and polished the bedrock into strange humps. The French call them roches moutonnees – mutton or sheep rocks. In some parts of the world, the bigger ones would be called whalebacks. That’s what I am seeing as my mind, in playful mode, morphs the geology into animals of stone. I’m in amongst a pod of whales, fresh swum from the studio of Henry Moore. They breach, and lounge, and lunge in sumptuous curves upon the surface of a bright green sea of short-cropped meadow grass. Alistair McIntosh, Poachers Pilgrimmage

The protrusion of heaven into earth and earth reaching towards and being an expression of heaven, of each being part of a whole, of our being part of a larger space and world, of tapping into unconscious and Other is important to depict and hold.

Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends. John 15:13

The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. John 10:11

Inspired by a sight in the Lake District: a cross shaped stone wall in a field with a sheep curled up in the crook between two arms of the wall, rested and sheltering. If the wind or rain or sun were coming in from another direction, I imagine the sheep would move round to another side.

The notion of a cross that is flat on the ground and not up on its end high, remote and totemic appeals. It suggests a Jesus that offers shelter, rest, composure and proximity. It is Jesus at ground level, lying open and available. Practical, domestic and pastoral even a shepherd theme develops (cf The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep (John 10:11).

Re-engagement with a symbol of such distinction may be the jolt for some, inviting a rethink about what the symbol tries to convey. A surprising twist. A questioning turn.