The Only Box That Ever Contained God

And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths and laid Him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.—Luke 2:7

Many people people today try to put God inside a box. There’s Cosmic Genie God, who lives to grant our wishes. There’s Social Justice Warrior God, whose primary concern is equity. There’s Bob Ross God, whose world is filled with happy trees and happy thoughts.  Some imagine a Doom-and-Gloom God, who never can be satisfied and exists to thwart our best plans. But God doesn’t fit inside any of those boxes.

Only one box has ever contained God—and that one merely contained Him physically, because nothing can contain His deity.

With that wooden feed box lay the God of the universe, the Creator, the Word that was with God in the beginning, the Son of God and Son of Man, our Redeemer, our Savior, our Emmanuel.

He is boundless and timeless. He is all-powerful and all-knowing. He is holy and perfect and true. He cannot look upon sin. He is love, and He is wrath.  

He is our judge, and He is our intercessor. He is humble and meek, yet He is our strength and our refuge. He is our healer and our hope. He is our counselor and our comfort. He is our faithful friend who sticks closer than a brother.

He is slow to anger and quick to forgive, but do not be fooled: He is to be feared. In His love, He disciplines us. Through His word, He instructs us. By His Spirit, He guides us. In His faithfulness, He completes the good work He has begun in us.

He is our provider, and He is our provision. He is our source, and He is our eternal security. He is who He is, and He will always be. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last.

He came to Earth to die and to deliver us from death. And He is coming again. This God who came in flesh as a lowly child will return as a conquering King. 

The hairs of His head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, His feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and His voice was like the roar of many waters. In His right hand He held seven stars, from His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and His face was like the sun shining in full strength. When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as though dead.—Revelation 1:14-17a

He is no cosmic genie. He is no deified social justice warrior. He is no Bob Ross wannabe. He is no cruel destroyer of dreams. He is Jesus, the name above every name. He is too great to fit inside any box or for any mind to comprehend. And He is worthy of all our adoration and praise.

As you think about the manger—that box that once held His physical form—think about the greatest gift we have ever received.