The Blessed Peace of Limits

Treasured Friends,

It is notable both in Scripture and in life how often calamity, crisis, and uncertainty are the result of our unwillingness to accept limits and boundaries.

Adam and Eve were handed all the lush beauty and bounty of Eden, but immediately sought to have the one part of it they were told was not theirs to enjoy.

Israel was claimed as God’s chosen people and given a Promised Land of their own, but immediately yearned to be more like the nations around them.

David was given a kingdom and entrusted with kingly authority, but so lusted after another man’s wife, he had her husband slain so he could take her as his own.

The sinful impulse is to break free from limits, to despise boundaries, and to assume any claim upon our lives represents a threat to our autonomy. Yet, God’s gift is to let us be the creatures and children we are, and rest in the confidence that He will provide. It is surely not an accident that Jesus regularly celebrates sheep and children as the image of what it looks like to live faithfully in the shelter and shadow of God’s generous and capable hand.

When a little child trusts implicitly that her parents will provide, it reflects a willingness to be the child she is. It also reflects her confidence that those parents are worthy to be trusted, and able to be depended upon.

God’s glory is to be the Creator and Heavenly Father He is, and our glory is to be His creatures and children: glad to accept the limits of creature and childhood, because we trust Him to be our Creator and our Heavenly Father.

On the journey with you,

Mike