Boxes

 Yes, corrugated cardboard is a part of nearly all of our lives these days, in large proportion. Online shopping and home delivery have required more boxes than ever before. All shapes and sizes. All designed to contain and protect the contents.

Boxes…

Perhaps the rush toward home delivery and shipping containers has leaked into our cultural propensity to package and confine other aspects of our lives. Maybe even our perspective on God.

Think about it.

God in a box. Contained. Predictable. Something that labels fit nicely on.

Is this the trap we have fallen into? God on my terms. God inside the boundaries I have established?

God is sovereign and consistent and true… but that doesn’t mean He fits snugly and safely in the box of my choosing. And choosing boxes for God is something all of us have a tendency to do. We construct a God that thinks like we do, spends like we do, dresses like we do, posts on Facebook and Instagram like we do, never uses Tik Tok, hates what I hate, and votes exactly like I do…

An unchanging God doesn’t mean a containable God. He is vast beyond our understanding. Awesome beyond measurement. Timeless and yet intimately engaged. Loving, beyond our wildest expectations.

All of that seldom fits inside the box I want to put Him in.

No, He’s in my box when He loves who I love, and watches what I watch, and lives where I live, and votes the way I vote… but God doesn’t fit in a box… and especially not a ballot box.

Jesus is our prime example. A member of the Godhead. An equal part of the Trinity with the Father, and Holy Spirit… Jesus pushed through the boxes that nearly everyone wanted to put Him in. And He did this “in the flesh”.

He was holy, and yet He loved sinners.

He was just, and yet rescued convicts.

He was devout, and yet He stepped on the toes of the religious leaders.

He was a craftsman, and yet He was a rabbi.

He was a man, and yet He cherished, valued, and elevated women.

He was a Jew, and yet He celebrated the Imago Dei in everyone.

He was God, and yet He became a man.

He was sinless, and yet He absorbed the just penalty for the sins of mankind.

He was the King, and yet He washed feet and touched dead bodies.

He was pure, and yet He reached out to leprous limbs.

He was powerful, and yet He pursued the weak.

He was perfect, and yet He welcomed the broken.

He was the Lion, and yet He became a lamb.

He confronted political overreach, and yet He paid taxes.

He valued community, and yet He surrounded Himself with zealots and tax collectors.

He was a peace maker, and yet He never backed down from a righteous fight.

Grace and truth.

Gentle and lowly.

Find a box for that.

Frankly, we don’t worship what we can put in a box…

We worship a King. The King. Anything less is idol worship in a box.

God is boundaryless and beautifully so.   

Perfect. Timeless. Unchanging.

Gracious. Merciful. Loving. Compassionate.

Same day delivery, but never in a box.