Everything the Lord created in the natural world has boundaries. There is a certain point where a forest ends and a meadow begins. A tree trunk has a specific width and height, and every tree’s canopy only grows to that height. Yet there are huge redwoods and small trees. We know from Genesis the Lord put a specific boundary between the firmament and the waters when He created the earth. The end of this firmament is a beach or a rocky shoreline. Even our solar system of planets has a boundary, as does the Milky Way galaxy.
Some boundaries are semi-permeable. Our ability to breathe oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide is nothing short of miraculous. Oxygen doesn’t end up in any other part of the body – only the lungs and blood vessels. The sacs in the lungs transfer oxygen to the capillaries and it’s then pumped by the heart to the rest of the body. Hemoglobin in the red blood cells carries the oxygen and then the carbon dioxide back to the lungs to be exhaled. When a human life begins through fertilization, the sperm penetrates the barrier of the egg so they can unite. The resulting fertilized egg has a new boundary.
The Lord made our rivers follow their stream beds. Man gets to walk on the earth while the birds, butterflies and insects fly in the air. Yet even they have a boundary – the sky. Fish can only survive within salt or fresh water. The ocean, streams or lakes form their boundaries.
Scripture tells us that all things hold together by the will of the one who made them. “… he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” (1) Our bodies hold their shape, and planet earth keeps to its sphere. For now, we have boundary lines for our existence on earth. But when the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within us, He gives us a bit of the eternal within a finite body. Here is how one of our forefathers put it:
“Thou have given me understanding to compass the earth,
Measure the sun, moon and stars, universe,
but above all to know thee, the only true God.
I marvel that the finite can know the Infinite,” (2)
One day, that boundary will dissolve, and we will live in the heavenly realm. The “Indissoluble union” the Puritan writer spoke about will be completely fulfilled and come to fruition in our new bodies. (3)
For now, we who take Christ as Lord and Savior have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. We cannot see or touch the Spirit. Yet we can testify to His very presence in our lives by the work that He does in us and our ability to understand His Word. So, even while our earthly realm has its boundaries, there is no separation between us in the Spirit. Here is a prayer from another Puritan writer:
“Oh unite me to thyself with inseparable bonds, that nothing may ever draw me back from thee, my Lord and my Savior.” (4)
How wonderful the thought: we can be inseparable from the Lord, eternally joined with Him by His Spirit by asking Him to be our Lord and Savior.
“The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.”
Psalm 16:6
- Colossians 1:17 ESV
- Valley of Vision pg. 101
- Valley of Vision pg. 97
- Valley of Vision pg. 63
