Boundaries By God’s Design
I am often not good at establishing, or maintaining boundaries. There are times when I feel like boundaries are “selfish” – a way to protect my interests when I “could” or “should” be doing something for someone else. I don’t know if these feelings originate in known prejudices about women, or maybe they are just a result of my own experiences. However, I do know that when I see boundaries as “no good”, then I am not looking at the early examples that God provides.
You see, in Genesis, the first book of the Bible, there is the story of creation. Lessons about the importance of boundaries are right there! Let’s look at these verses from the New Living Translation (NLT; emphasis mine):
Genesis 1:4 “And God saw that the light was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness.”
Genesis 1:7b “God made this space to separate the waters of the earth from the waters of the heavens.”
Genesis 1:14 “Then God said, “Let lights appear in the sky to separate the day from the night. Let them be signs to mark the seasons, days and years.”
All three of these verses are in the first chapter of the first book of the Bible. They involve separating things or marking where things should begin and end. In other versions of the Bible, the word used in these same verses does not change. Separate is used consistently. Well, if God saw fit to start the entirety of the Bible with marking the beginnings and endings of the different things we know to be primal to our experience on Earth, then God is demonstrating the usefulness of boundaries or separateness.
We see, and experience, these God-created boundaries daily. We are witness to the end of day and the beginning of night. We know from study and maybe from our own life experience that the waters of earth have “ends” that we call the shoreline. In Jeremiah 5:22, the Lord Himself emphasizes that boundary He created. “Have you no respect for me? Why don’t you tremble in my presence? I, the Lord, define the ocean’s sandy shoreline as an everlasting boundary that the waters cannot cross. The waves may toss and roar, but they can never pass the boundaries I set.”
The breaking or breaching of these natural boundaries often feel ominous, or strange. The recent solar eclipse highlighted our fascination with the idea that our large, and powerful daily source of light can be darkened by our comparably small moon during daylight hours. We also see storms roll in; the light seems to suddenly leave the sky. Likewise, when water breaks its boundaries in strong waves or flooding, it can cause devastation.
I do not assume that these verses tell us that in all situations that boundaries need to be erected or reinforced. But let us at least acknowledge that the God of the universe, when the circumstances were perfectly right, used boundaries to provide us with glorious glimpses of HIs majesty. The visual ending of today, the starting of tomorrow and the variety in our landscapes are beautiful examples of boundaries as miracles. That movement through time marks the separation of what is past, what is now and what is to come. I hope that provides hope and strength to you as you manage your own struggles with boundaries as it does for me.
