God In A Box, God Out Of The Box

Millennia ago, or so the Holy Bible say, humanity made a few decisions that has possibly lead to our current global warming issues, or at least the beginning of the fashion industry. Having lived in blissful climate controlled nudity, we chose knowledge and death over life and blissful ignorance. Like so many kids, once overly keen to leave home and learn the ways of the world, we soon wished that we were back with mum and dad and free from the constant demands of adult life. Besides, back in the Garden of Eden every day was 'Nude Up Friday.' Ever since we were shown the door from innocence, the creator has tried to reach us and invite our species back into the family fold. When looking at the Bible it seems that, like Saint Nick, God has frequently reached out to us with gifts in boxes. 

Box Number 1
The word 'ark' means box and we first come across God's gift giving in the Ark of Noah. Seeing the damage caused by humanity's willing choice of evil over good, alongside damage caused by fallen heavenly powers, the creator chooses to flood the land, and with a remnant of life, start again. 

It's here that box number 1 appears in the story. The vessel to save creation will be a box built by the only good man God can find, Noah. Through the shelter of this giant box, select specimens of life survive a world cleansing flood, only to repopulate a new one that seems replete with the troubles of old. Like school and students, the world seems great until life, human in particularly, comes to mess it up all over again.

Box Number 2
The arrival of box number 2 occurs when God seeks to set his chosen people, the Israelites, free from slavery in Egypt. This tiny box is used to hide the infant Moses in the river Nile at a time when Israelite babies were being slaughtered by the ruling Pharaoh's soldiers. Instead of a remnant of creation, this floating box contained the child that would one day lead a group of liberated slaves and guide them in the ways of a nation that God would choose to help redeem creation . Ironically, or more to the point, providentially, the baby is saved by the daughter of the very Pharaoh who seeks him dead and is soon an adopted member of the royal family. Unlike the first box, this box offers hope to more than just a few survivors, this box offers hope to the whole world. It brings into a position of influence a leader who will guide a people in the ways of an unseen God. In the years to come, many from other nations will admire and join the faith of the redeemed Hebrew slaves. Through the cosmic confusion of the ancient world's many deities, they will see in Israel the worship of a true God who demands justice and mercy from his people. Through the babe found floating in a box he would give the divine laws that would become the foundations of the modern world.

Box Number 3

The third box in the Bible story brings a about a new chapter in God's relationship with his creation. Alongside the laws, God commands Moses to build yet another ark. This time, instead of housing animals or prophets, it will reveal to his people God's very presence. It will be his foot stool on the earth. This box, the Ark of the Covenant, would travel with the Israelites through the desert, eventually finding a place in the Holy of Holies of the Jerusalem Temple. This beautiful gold covered chest would  play a vital role in the yearly Day of Atonement ceremony, the event that ritually cleansed the creation with the symbolic/actual sacrifice of God himself and the casting out of the evil that has contaminated the cosmos. Although this ark disappeared many millennia ago, it still fascinates the modern world, inspiring adventurers and movie makers a like to speculate on it's current where abouts. In the end, only God may truly know the answer, it's sacred presence no longer required in a world with out an earthly temple of bricks and mortar.

Box Number 4
The fourth and greatest box of all in the Bible far outstrips any that have come before it. Like the first, animals approached and fed with in it. Like the second, it held the life of a baby who would bring God's way to a people seeking direction in the ways of justice and mercy. Like the third, it held the very presence of God in the midst of his people. Most likely carved from stone than constructed with wood, this box isn't referred to as an ark but a manger, a feed trough for animals. It was into this that the greatest gift God ever gave, the baby Jesus, his word in human form, was placed after his birth in a Bethlehem stable. He would grow up to show us the way that God calls us to live, loving God and loving one another, He would grow up to give himself, God's presence amongst us, as a sacrifice for the whole of creation. He would grow up to cleanse the creation, not with a world destroying flood of water, but with the shedding of his own divine blood. Rising from the dead with in another container of stone, the now empty tomb, He stands triumphant, present in heaven and in those who follow him.  He is the greatest gift God has ever given us, the gift of a renewed relationship with our creator and hope for a day when death and evil have finally passed away. That's one gift that we all should cherish. St Nick, eat your heart out!