The Word of God creates
Potential and limits, bound up together
Like the edges of the sea, all glorious
Endless blue embracing the shore
When seas kick against the goads
We call their rebellion a disaster
The tsunami destroys, dishonors just limits
Breaking shalom with coast and village
We wail, send aid, pray
I once had a friend named Timo
He hated boundaries, down to the sign,
“No running by the pool!”
Pontificated long of the injustice of it all
How his own freedom could be curtailed
By law, by obligation to another
No one declared it a disaster
He did not hear the bonds of shalom break
The crack! of sin’s whip on the back of his soul
The wailers never arrived, nor help
I do remember saying a prayer
Longing for the unlimited horizon
Of a bounded sea
©2026 Jacqueline Tisthammer. All rights reserved.
Psalm 33:4-9“For the word of the Lord holds true,
and we can trust everything he does.
He loves whatever is just and good;
the unfailing love of the Lord fills the earth.
The Lord merely spoke,
and the heavens were created.
He breathed the word,
and all the stars were born.
He assigned the sea its boundaries
and locked the oceans in vast reservoirs.
Let the whole world fear the Lord,
and let everyone stand in awe of him.
For when he spoke, the world began!
It appeared at his command.”
What does it mean to be free?
This word is central to American life, and yet it means so many things. We frequently understand freedom in terms of our own desires or of the needs of our own community.
Genesis 1 shows God giving creation freedom to flourish through boundaries. He creates light to separate night and day and then the heavenly bodies to rule over days, seasons, and years. Time becomes a good boundary through which creation is free to diversify and multiply. When the dry ground ‘appears,’ it is the result of the chaotic seas receiving their boundaries. Each kind of animal is given a space in which to thrive. Human beings in their own orderly diversity are guardians of God’s orderly, yet endlessly creative, world.
Shalom is peace, but not in the sense of a truce or neutrality. Shalom is the presence of every good; it means everything is right, ordered as intended, functioning as it ought. It is not static, like escapist pictures of heaven often are, but is dynamic and growing. Shalom is true freedom for every part of creation, and every person in it. Boundaries support shalom and foster flourishing.
Timo’s dream of a life without boundary or obligation is not freedom, it is chaos. Keeping the sea of personal desire bounded makes space for ourselves, for others and for creation to flourish. Creating and maintaining just laws creates space in a society for flourishing. Choosing to acknowledge creaturely limits creates space for our souls and families to breathe.
Will we choose to live in chaos, or will we acknowledge the boundaries that bring freedom?
In Pursuit of More 