You can't put God in a box!  How often have you heard that?  Perhaps you have said it yourself.

Usually when we say, "you can't put God in a box," we mean that it is impossible to limit what God can do.  That is true enough. 

However, nowadays "you can't put God in a box" has become the creed of religious relativism.  Religious relativism teaches that all religious beliefs are a matter of perspective, that all religions are equally valid and that no one religion possesses absolute truth.  For example, I recently saw a bumper sticker that read, "My God is too big to fit into your religion."  The point being that God cannot be known through any one religion, and that every religion (including Christianity) offers, at best, only partial knowledge of God.

At first glance, you might be tempted to agree.  After all, we Christians believe that God is big — infinite in fact.  Perhaps you can't put God in a box.  Perhaps He is too big to fit into any one religion, even Christianity.  King Solomon said, "Will God indeed dwell on the earth?  Behold, heaven and the highest heavens cannot contain You." (1 Kings 8:27)

But look again at the familiar account of our Savior's birth.  Luke tells us how Joseph and Mary and came to Bethlehem.  Then he writes:

So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered.  And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger. (Luke 2:6-7)

Mary put God in a box.  

The mother of our Lord took her newborn son, God in the flesh, and laid Him in a box, a feeding trough.  Mary put God in a box — literally.

Is this just a clever twisting of words?  No it isn't.

While Mary was laying her baby in the manger, the angel was announcing His birth to the shepherds.  The angel told the shepherds that if they went to Bethlehem and looked into that manger, they would find God in the flesh:

For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, Who is Christ the Lord.   And this will be the sign to you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.  (Luke 2:11-12)

There's more.  Before Mary laid God in the manger, Mary held God in her arms.  For nine months prior to that, Mary carried God in her womb.  Nine months earlier, Mary had heard and believed the angel's words: 

Behold, you will conceive in your womb, and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus.  He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and His kingdom will have no end.  (Luke 1:31-33; see also Matthew 1:20-23; Isaiah 9:6-7)

Right then and there in Mary's womb, King Solomon's question, "will God indeed dwell on the earth?" was answered.  Yes, God will dwell on earth.  The God Whom the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain will not only dwell on earth, He will take up residence first in Mary's womb.

Saint Paul writes of Jesus, "In Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form" (Colossians 2:9).  The baby in Mary's womb, the baby in Mary's arms and the baby lying in the manger is God in the flesh.  There at Bethlehem, the fullness of God was found in a box at Mary's feet.  Luther wrote:

"I know of no God but this One in the manger…"

If you will have joy, bend yourself down to this place.  There you will find that boy given for you Who is your Creator, lying in a manger.  I will stay with that boy as He sucks, is washed, and dies.  There is no joy but in this boy. Take Him away and you face the Majesty which terrifies.  I know of no God but this One in the manger.  Do not let yourself be turned away from this humanity.  What wonderful words (Col. 2:9)!  He is not only a man and a servant, but that person lying in the manger is both man and God essentially, not separated one from the other, but as born of a virgin.  If you separate them, the joy is gone.  O You boy, lying in the manger, You are truly the God who has created me, and You will not be wrathful with me because You come to me in this loving way — a more loving way cannot be imagined.  (Luther's Christmas Sermon, 1527)

The truth is, God cannot be truly known apart from that God in the flesh, that God in a box, that baby in the manger.

Against the claims of religious relativism, Scripture declares that the Triune God has revealed Himself in all His fullness in bodily form in Jesus Christ.  To know Jesus is to know God, and apart from Jesus God cannot truly be known (John 1:14,18; 5:37-38; 14:6-9; 15:21-24; 1 John 4:6 and 2 John 1:9).

This is how God is with us — in the human flesh of Jesus.  More than that, this is how God is for us — in the human flesh of Jesus.

It pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself; by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His Cross. (Colossians 1:19-20)

Jesus traveled the path of the Virgin's womb to the Cross.  He came, God and man, so that He might make peace between God and man at the Cross.

Just as God lay in the manger, so God hung on the Cross.  Just as God lay in the manger, so God lay in the tomb.  Just as God lay in the manger, so God came out of the tomb alive to stand among His disciples.   Just as God lay in the manger, so God ascended in glory and will return to raise the dead and judge the world.

But Jesus is no longer in the manger.  Jesus is no longer on the Cross. Jesus is no longer in the tomb.  Where is our God in the flesh to be found today?  Solomon's question remains, "Will God indeed dwell on the earth?"  And the answer remains the same. 

Yes, God will dwell on earth.  God is still among us as He was in Mary's womb, in Mary's arms and in the manger.  God is still among us as He was on the Cross, in the tomb and, raised from the dead, among His disciples. 

Every Sunday Jesus speaks these words at His Supper, "This is my body given for you… This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you." (Luke 22:19-20) 

Is this just a clever twisting of words?  No it isn't.

The same body that was in Mary's womb, in Mary's arms, in the manger, on the Cross, in the tomb, resurrected among the disciples and is sitting at the right hand of God is in the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper.  Still today, this is how God is with us; this is how God is for us.

Paul tells us: As often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes (1 Corinthians 11:26).  This is true.  As often as we receive the Lord's Supper, Jesus' conception, birth, death and resurrection for sinners are proclaimed.  And as often as these things are proclaimed, they are delivered!  Forgiveness, Life and Salvation are found nowhere else but in Jesus, God in the flesh.

The words of the Christmas hymn sing not only of Christmas day, but of every Sunday, every Lord's Supper:

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see.
Hail thee' incarnate deity.
Pleased as man with men to dwell,
Jesus, our Emmanuel.

The angel told the shepherds that if they went to Bethlehem and looked into the manger, they would find God in the flesh.

So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us."  And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger.  Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying, which was told them concerning this Child.  (Luke 2:15-17)

This Christmas, you won't find Jesus in the manger, or on the Cross or in the tomb.  You will only find Jesus where He has promised to be found.   You will find Jesus wherever His incarnation, death and resurrection for sinners is purely proclaimed and rightly delivered.  You will find Jesus in His Word and His sacraments.  And, just like the shepherds, where you find Jesus, you find God — God in the flesh, God with you, God for you.