Un-containable God

In Linguistics, we talk about frames. For instance, a frame for a telephone conversation begins with someone picking up the receiver and saying "Hello." If no one says "Hello," even if you can audibly tell that the receiver has been picked up (from the clicking noise), you will probably not begin speaking. We wait for the correct "frame" for the conversation. Equally important is the end of the conversation. We will not put the phone down, barring an argument, in the middle of a sentence. We wait for the end frame, "Goodbye" or "Talk to you later" or "See you, ___."

Since our worldly interactions are built around frames, we sometimes incorrectly try to generalize our frame system to our God. We put Him in a box far to often... limiting Him to certain tasks, certain feelings, certain abilities, certain spaces. And Solomon has it right in the passage I read this morning... nothing can contain Him. And that brings new meaning to Jesus' entrance into the world.


18 "But will God really dwell on earth with men? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built! 19 Yet give attention to your servant's prayer and his plea for mercy, O LORD my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence. 20 May your eyes be open toward this temple day and night, this place of which you said you would put your Name there. May you hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place. 21 Hear the supplications of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place; and when you hear, forgive. -2 Chronicles 6:18-21

The simple Sunday School answer to, "Where is God?" is probably something like "heaven." We use this to explain something inexplainable... the fact that God is everywhere, everything, all of the time. Like the familiar song, "God is here among us." He cannot be contained by the walls of a temple or the confines of heaven. That's one reason why I always loved the outdoor cathedral at Camp Swatara. It reminded me that the 'church' is not just a building, 'church' is the people, the space, the sentiment brought before the Lord in worship.

And this inability to contain our God is seen all the more clearly in our savior Jesus. God left heaven to come onto the earth. The heavens truly could not contain Him. Neither could the temples, since He was out and about preaching to people... yet this was/is very hard for so many to understand, as the next passage shows.


24The Jews gathered around him, saying, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ,[a] tell us plainly."

25Jesus answered, "I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father's name speak for me, 26but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. 27My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. 29My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all[b]; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. 30I and the Father are one."

31Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, 32but Jesus said to them, "I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?"

33"We are not stoning you for any of these," replied the Jews, "but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God."

34Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your Law, 'I have said you are gods'[c]? 35If he called them 'gods,' to whom the word of God came—and the Scripture cannot be broken— 36what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, 'I am God's Son'? 37Do not believe me unless I do what my Father does. 38But if I do it, even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father." 39Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp.-John 10:24-39

As Jesus said, "I and the Father are one." But this is not something that the people could understand. It must be blasphemy, because God wouldn't leave His heavenly kingdom and God wouldn't leave His heavenly celestial body to become a mere man. But, through His miracles, Jesus showed that He was "in the Father" and the Father was "in Him". And how comforting to know that wherever we may be... our un-containable God has the power to keep up... no one can snatch His sheep out of His father's hand.

Praise the Lord for His un-containable goodness... that passes our understanding- through time, space, season. He is Lord.