The Freedom Of Limitation – Living Inside God's BoxSample

Even Jesus Had A Box - The Physical Box

The mesmerizing miracle of the incarnation is that God the Son became one of us. The immeasurable glory of the eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present, self-existent, Creator God, was poured into a baby, in a teenager’s womb, and was born and lived among us!

Millions of words have been written about this history-changing event. Though I cannot fully grasp with my finite mind the mystery of the incarnation, I celebrate its magnificence! At the heart of the incarnation, however, is a paradox…

God the Son, who in His pre-incarnate state lived (within His own character and code) a limitless existence, is now “boxed in” by a human body. For the first few years this body would make Him almost entirely dependent on other human beings for His very survival and even when He learned to stand on His own two feet, His body-box meant that God in flesh could only be in one place at one time. He would get tired, hungry, weak and lonely. When the sun shone, His skin would burn and when winter came, He would shiver – just like everyone else. When cut, He would bleed. When beaten, He would bruise. In time, nailed to a cross, He would die!

We might not think of Jesus’ body as a box, but it was. He had to learn to live within, and to make the most of His human limitations. He had to rest, sleep, take care of what He consumed, plan His journeys carefully and give Himself every chance to succeed within His human condition. His deity didn’t override His humanity. Rather He lived within it.

Our physicality is part of our spirituality and we have a responsibility to steward our bodies well, whatever their condition. Though it brings its limits, if we respect, take care of and invest in our “physical box”, it can be an amazing tool in the hand of God. For approximately 33 years, Jesus lived successfully with His body-box! We may be limited to one place at one time, but we can still live a big life!