What Does God Look Like?
I’ve been thinking about God lately, but not like I usually do. Normally I think about who God is, what He does, what He has written, that kind of stuff. But lately I’ve been thinking about what God looks like. I know, you’re not supposed to do that.
Besides the commandment about not making an image of God in any form, the Bible tells us God is spirit, so there’s no physicality to Him. All of the talk in Scripture about God’s eyes, feet, hands, arms, etc. are anthropomorphisms. It’s the writers applying human traits to God so we understand Him better. But in no way is that to suggest that God has a physical body. Still, we humans can’t help but try to imagine what God looks like. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Artists have been portraying God for centuries, the most famous being Michelangelo’s gigantic creation painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, where God’s finger is touching Adam’s finger. God is old and white-haired and pretty buff.
If we’re being honest, most of us will admit having a similar picture of God in our minds when we pray to Him or read about Him in the Bible. I’m not saying that’s wrong. In fact, it’s completely natural, and I don’t think it bothers God. But I do think it amuses Him.
Recently I came across a quote from G.K. Chesterton that challenged my perception in a big way, especially as it relates to this whole God-is-a-buff-grandpa thing:
God has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.
This quote has changed the way I think about God and the way I imagine Him. We are the ones who age. God is ageless. We are the ones who get gray and feeble. He is eternally young.
Since finding this quote, I have started thinking about “what God looks like” in ways I never before considered. When I talk with Him in prayer, and He talks to me through His word and Spirit, different images run through my mind. I find myself relating to Him, not as a disembodied divine being, but as a personal, active, creative, all-powerful, all-wise and eternally young Father who is interested in me and wants to help me with any problem I have.
Regardless of how I use my feeble mind to picture Him, the most productive thing I can do is acknowledge His absolute sovereignty over everything, including every detail of my life.
It’s not about my trying to bring God to my level, to mold him into my convenient perceptions. God is God and I’m not. He is everything. That He would even think about me should both humble me and also ignite my imagination to see Him for who He really is: Eternally young.