A box by our definition is a container with a flat base and sides, typically square or rectangular and having a lid. A box is a limited area of space contained within it’s defined walls of measurement.  Over time you probably have heard “think outside the box“, “put yourself in other peoples shoes“, and “there are always two sides to a story“. There is a box that most do not see, yet gazes upon it daily, lives with it, and act upon without knowing it exists.

When I say, “box” what is the first image that pops into your head? My first thought was the brown cardboard boxes you could play inside cutting doors, windows, and spy holes. Some will think of Christmas boxes, delivery boxes, candy boxes, and on. Now, you and I have gone through a variety of boxes let us focus on one box. I see a box sitting in the floor in a large room with all sides closed. In this room it is very small compared to the couch, chair, recliner, coffee table and other assorted living room items. Our every day life seems like this box in the floor with everything else around it towering over it in size. I hope you will see the power inside this box by the end of this past the surface thought.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. I have looked into the heavens by day and by night. The creation my eyes have looked upon have seemed so vast and endless with the mountains, valleys, clouds, and stars. God created the sun for the day and the moon/stars for the night. I can see them from where I stand and yet their distance from from me is far from my hand. God divided the water from the land and thinned it out for the air that we breathe. My eyes have seen the wide rivers, the vast lakes, and the seemingly endless oceans. God created the plants, various vegetation, and the trees. Using the images recorded in my mind of the green fields, corn fields…, and the different kind of trees seem to supersede my mind from counting them across the valleys and mountains.

Now, take yourself to the largest site you can recall ever seeing whether it is the Grand Canyon, the pyramids of Giza, great wall of China, any oceans, or the great smoky mountains and just stand there in your imagination remembering how huge it was and how tiny you were in the middle of it all. I remember how I thought it was a beautiful towering sight all around me and vastness in size. Out of all that you see in this creation you and I were that small box in the middle of it all that God breathed His breathe of life inside that fleshly box made from the dust of the earth a living eternal being formed in an image and likeness of God.

Mankind was born inside a fleshly box. Ge. 2:7 “…God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” (NIV). Our box is the physical container for our spirit. We are all born inside a box, but not a box you may think about in our standard definition. This is a time to hang on because we are now headed towards seeing outside our box putting into motion an exploration of “thinking outside our box” as we were meant to be. In all creation only we were the box of flesh God breathed His eternal breathe of life into. Our box of flesh is not made of a single part, but so many parts that the smartest people on the planet are still discovering new things in this complicated box of flesh, even with technologies help. We have feet and hands on the furthermost ends of our limbs. We have eyes and ears that are neighbors, but with very different personalities and functions. Our complicated fleshly bodies is a tiny representation of the image and likeness of God. He created our box of flesh in way it pleased Him as our Father, how each little part in all its plurality in one flesh box would slightly represent Himself, and how He wanted His children look like. God is so vast with no end to His presence, His power, and His intelligence. Everything about us from the tiniest unseen by the natural eye to the largest visible part is a complicated representation of Him.  There is so much more, but lets pause and slow down to the fact we are born inside a box – a box of flesh.