BODIES & BORDERS

Bodies & Borders

Why do countries have borders? One might as well ask why humans have bodies. Both are because God created man to occupy specific geographical locations. Thus man and countries are restricted by borders. To be sure, we expand our borders as individuals as our bodies increase from infancy to adulthood. But still, like nations, we are restricted by boundaries. We put on weight, we lose weight. And so the tide goes out, and the tide comes in on our nation. Those boundaries have been put there by God who made us.  God alone has no boundaries.

Who knows how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, and why should we even care? But we do know that each angel and each collective host of angels, though not having material bodies, occupies restricted space. For God alone is omnipresent. Even the Devil can’t be everywhere at once, having to go “to and fro on the earth” (Job 1:7). Same with those wicked angels who left their own abode to join him (Jude 6).

              God has us all right where He wants us to be, and when He wants us to be.  And even when we die we still occupy a restricted space individually and collectively. And, we won’t escape from our bodies for long; for mankind’s Resurrection Day is ahead (John 5:28&29).

Let’s face it, as individuals we are as restricted by our bodies just as countries are restricted by their borders. Is this such a bad thing? Not if you have groped for God and found Him. For Scripture says, “And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each of us.” Acts 17:26&27.

Individuals are to grope for God. Nations are to grope for God. Therefore individually and collectively we are to seek the God who made us of one blood in Adam. It’s a sad thing when a person closes himself to God. It is even sadder when a nation closes its borders to God. But the good news is that God has no boundaries! No heart of stone and no ‘Iron’ or ‘Bamboo Curtain’ can stop Almighty God entering should He wish.

As individuals we are to use our bodies to glorify God (1 Corinthians 6:10). Collectively, as a nation, we are to glorify God (Psalm 117:1). “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people He has chosen for His own inheritance. The LORD looks from heaven; He sees the sons of men. From the place of His dwelling He looks on all the inhabitants of the earth; He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works.” Psalm 33:12-15.

Why fade away and disappear as an individual? Why disappear as a nation? Open your heart and borders to the true and living Triune God who “… did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” John 3:17.

The sovereign God has put you in your body and you in your nation. Therefore look only to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit if you would seek to extend your own, and your nation’s, borders. Think outside your own body!