God In A Box

Friday night I sat with friends while we listened to a great band at a local restaurant/pub. One friend was particularly concerned about what people might "think." I totally understood her concern. I was that person at one time.

About 15 years ago I was the wife in the perfect little family...or at least that's what it looked like to all the religious people. My family belonged to a conservative church up the road, and the kids attended the church school. In a million years I never imagined that I would be divorced. I had said, “till death do us part,” and I had every intention of keeping that vow. But, long before my legal separation was public knowledge I realized that no one knows what goes on inside the four walls of a home except those who live there. When my marriage imploded, I tried to continue being the same person I had been before all our dirty laundry was poured out on the streets. I especially tried to stay active in the church so that my children could have some normalcy in the chaos of divorce. Too soon, though, I was relieved of my duties because of my "circumstances," and it was hard for my kids to attend school because of the gossip repeated by their friends.

I know it was the Lord who encouraged me that January to read the Bible through that year...with the kids...out loud...every night. We'd turn off the television and pile up on my bed or on the sofa, and we would all read a chapter until the reading was complete. It was a priceless hour, with the only sound in the house being the voices of those precious kids reading the Word.

Afterward, we usually would discuss the reading. Some questions I could answer, and some I could not. My kids usually had a lot of questions about why the people at church and school were so hurtful in their comments and judgement. I made that question a matter of prayer and, the answer was nothing less than inspired in everything we witnessed that year in the Word. Time and again we realized that our God is too big for the box of limitations, religion, tradition, and methods. He is bigger and stronger and smarter than we can even fathom. He created it all, from nothing. He is so limitless that no two sunsets have ever been the same. Unfortunately, though, much like atheists, our church family could not see the limitless God. They had their own rules about hair and dress and music and Bible translations and, of course, divorce. The judgement was palpable at times; but, throughout that year, where man failed, God showed us that He is as infinite as we let Him be. He knows all languages and dialects. He loves all music from a heart of worship. He adores all types of true worship. His Word is inspired when it speaks to a lost soul, even if not KJV. And He is so much more concerned about what is going on inside our hearts than what we are wearing on our back.

So many years have passed, but the lesson is as real today as it was those years ago. When our family was decimated by divorce, and abandoned by our church, God showed up nightly in His word and daily in the reminders that He is infinite, limitless, omniscient, and far too big to squeeze into the box of our finite mind.

I love those folks from that conservative church. Most did not mean any harm. But I am so happy that I no longer shackle my God with their limitations and expectations. One of those church folk recently bragged on Facebook about how proud he was of his 13 year old son who didn't want to sit "facing the bar" in a restaurant. I wondered to myself where Jesus would have sat in that restaurant. I have a feeling he would have been in the bar. He may have heard a great band, too.