For those of us who were introduced to Christianity at a young age, likely one of the first things we were told about God is that He is big. Of course, as we mature in our thinking, we come to realize that it makes little sense to speak of the dimensions of an immaterial Being. But when we’re younger, this simple statement avoids getting too technical while effectively communicating quite a bit about the nature of God.
Similar to the idea that God is “big” is the admonition not to put God “in a box”. Of course, we don’t literally mean a box anymore than we literally mean “big”, but this phrase is still meaningful to many of us. Usually, the idea behind this phrase is that no limit can be placed on God: because of this, we should not be worried when troubles come, because God will always be “bigger” than the “storm.” In other words, often when we say “don’t put God in a box”, we mean that God is powerful enough to come through in whatever way we might need.
But is this the only possible meaning of this phrase? What if it has less to do with imposing limits on God and more to do with imposing our expectations on God? What if, by trying to avoid putting God in a box, we might actually end up putting Him into an even smaller one?
It may be “putting God in a box”, for example, to declare that we know for sure He will rescue us from a particular problem or situation. By acknowledging that He’s powerful enough to do whatever it is we have in mind, we feel like we’re avoiding putting Him in a box; but have we considered what is actually His will? It’s too easy for us to assume that we know God’s will based on our own sense of what we think is best in any given situation.
So when I think of putting something in a box, I think primarily not of the fact that the contents are limited and contained, but that whatever it is is being placed in a convenient place, ready to be retrieved whenever I need it. I know exactly where it is and I can pull it out whenever I want. When I’m done with it, I can put it away and go about my business.
This brings to my mind the portrayal of Aslan, the lion who plays a role reminiscent of Jesus in The Chronicles of Narnia. In The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, upon hearing that Aslan will be arriving soon (and that he’s a lion), one character nervously asks whether he’s safe. Another character replies “Safe? Of course he isn’t safe! But he’s good.” There is a profound point illustrated in this reply. The point was that ultimately, Aslan was a lion. He had teeth and claws. He was dangerous and caused his enemies to tremble in fear. He sometimes led the characters in the story into danger and asked them to do things they thought would be impossible. Later in the same book, another character remarks that he’s not a “tame” lion. Perhaps most significantly, he seldom did what anyone expected or thought would make sense. Often the characters were very frustrated with his choices. But ultimately, they trusted him, because they knew he was good.
So maybe putting God in a box means to imagine Him as “tame” or “safe.” What are the ways in which we do this?
Perhaps we view our relationship with God primarily as a source of great benefit to ourselves without any sacrifice or risk. It is our nature to imagine ourselves as the center of our own story, and God as a supporting character who merely provides us hope and happiness and assistance when we need it.
Perhaps we take general principles, such as the fact that God is good, and then we draw specific conclusions based on our own assumptions. We assure ourselves that God would never let us be too far removed from our comfort zone or faced with too much difficulty, because we’re sure He wouldn’t give us “more than we can handle.” Or we may be convinced that God will deliver us from a certain trial because “just know” that this would be best in our specific situation. Since God is good, He must agree with us. We may even grasp on an intellectual level that this is a problematic assumption, but when we find ourselves in the middle of trouble, it’s easy for our emotions to take over and to slip into this kind of thinking.
Perhaps we invoke God in the decisions we make, declaring too hastily that we feel a particular choice is what God wants us to do, in order to create a sense of assurance that we have made the best choice (and to discourage anyone from questioning our conclusions). Conveniently, His desires and plans just happen to line up with ours. We pull Him out of our box as if He were a rubber stamp and then put Him away again when we’re done.
Perhaps we simply imagine God as a kindly old grandfather who does little more than spoil His children (or I guess grandchildren in this case). It’s too easy to get so caught up in how much God loves us that we think of nothing else than all the wonderful things ways in which He must want to bless us. God is not merely a wish-granter. Obviously God’s love is a significant part of who He is, but we must be careful not to ignore His other aspects, such as justice, holiness, etc. As I’ve argued in another blog, our happiness is far from God’s greatest desire.
Perhaps we find ourselves in a dire situation and simply make the decision for God that He certainly will use His power to rescue us. This may be one of the most common situations in which, in an effort to liberate God from the box, we actually stuff Him further down in it. In other words, we declare that we’re sure God is going to supernaturally deliver us, and to anyone who questions this, we remind them how big and powerful God is and refuse to doubt that He is able to do whatever it is we need. But the question was never about what God can do, but what He will do. We have decided that He must act...but must He? Only He knows the answer to that question in any given situation.
Ultimately, we must remember that we are merely minor characters in a story of which God is the center. He will not always do what we would like, or what we think is best. In fact, often He will do nothing when we think He should. Part of having respect for God is recognizing our place relative to His and being wary of making too much of our expectations of Him, no matter how much sense they may make to us. Perhaps it’s best to conclude with a slight twist on C.S. Lewis’s description of Aslan: “Good? Of course God is good! But He isn’t tame.”
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