You alone are the Lord; You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and everything on it, the seas and all that is in them, and You preserve them all. (Nehemiah 9:6 (NKJV))

When someone introduces a speaker, he’ll tell you a little about the person. You’ll learn who he is, where he’s from, and why he’s qualified to tell you about the topic he’s speaking on. But God needs no introduction. He just is. He always was. And He always will be.

So, the Bible doesn’t start by giving us God’s credentials. Instead, it simply says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1 (NKJV)). God is God, and we are not.

Yet, we try to put God into a box sometimes, don’t we? We try to define Him. Or we try to bring God down to our level by making Him smaller and quantifiable. Like Natalie Grant lamented in her song, King of the World:

I try to fit You in the walls inside my mind

I try to keep You safely in between the lines

I try to put You in the box that I’ve designed

I try to pull You down so we are eye-to-eye

When did I forget that You’ve always been the King of the world?

I try to take life back right out of the hands of the King of the world

How could I make You so small when You’re the One who holds it all?

It’s the old story of us wanting to be God. Before Eve sinned, Satan tempted her by appealing to her pride. He told Eve that her eyes would be opened if she ate the forbidden fruit. He promised that she would “be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5 (NKJV)). He insinuated that God was trying to hold her back and keep her from being all that she could be.

I think we all make the mistake of trying to put God in a box sometimes. Our pride rises up, and we think we know best. We try to make ourselves equal to God. Yet, when we do, we’re making an idol.

Countless people before us have tried to minimize God by making idols of wood, clay, stone, silver, and gold. They gave those idols human characteristics that they could understand. But those idols were not God. As the Bible tells us:

Their idols are silver and gold,

The work of men’s hands.

They have mouths, but they do not speak;

Eyes they have, but they do not see;

They have ears, but they do not hear;

Noses they have, but they do not smell;

They have hands, but they do not handle;

Feet they have, but they do not walk;

Nor do they mutter through their throat. (Psalm 115:4-7 (NKJV))

Idols cannot help us. They cannot see, hear, or do anything. They are lifeless.

You can’t make any image that would even come close to representing God. And you can’t fit God into a box. The almighty, all-powerful, all-knowing God cannot be contained or recreated by His creation. Our Creator exceeds our understanding.

And that’s a good thing. Anything you could hold in your hand or fully grasp with your mind would not be able to help you. Anything you make is limited by your own resources.

But our God is limitless. He is the One who made the heavens and the earth. He is the One who made you and me. Our God is bigger and more amazing than we could imagine. Praise Him!

So, don’t put God in a box. Don’t try to diminish who He is. You can’t hold Him in your hand. But God’s holding you in His as you walk by faith with Him.

Photo by Jeremy Thomas on Unsplash