If the Shoebox Fits

photo from ehow

The Family -- that is,  the radio station where I work -- is collecting shoeboxes to hold Christmas gifts for families in need.  So, yesterday, as I was bringing in some extras we had floating around the house, I started to wonder: if it no longer holds shoes, is it still a shoe box?

Is it what it is because that's how it was made, or is it defined instead by what's in it? When we put a present in it and wrap it in nice paper, has it ceased to be a simple shoebox and become a gift box?

I don't know about boxes, but Man is defined by what's inside. On the outside, man is simple enough: lumps of flesh, tissue of various textures and uses, stacks of bone... but this is the stuff that houses the man; not who the man actually is.

Scripture tells us we were born sinners. Paul says, in Romans 5:12-14

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law.  Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.

However, 2 Corinthians 5:17 says that, when we are Forgiven and Justified by Christ, we become new creations. Nothing has changed on the outside, but we have been repurposed. Though we are still the same box we were before, what was inside has been pulled out and replaced with Grace; and that has changed who we are.