What Does God Look Like?

Good morning Hump Day readers. I was going through some old devotions, quotes, etc., and one struck me deeply. We are made in God’s image, but just what does God look like? In the Gospel of John, Jesus tells us:

“…I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No one can come to the Father except through me.
If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is.
From now on, you do know him and have seen him!”

-John 14:6-7 NLT

Imagine the disciples’ response—they’ve seen Jesus so they’ve seen God! Yet, we have no pictures of God and God has no earthly body to see, hmmm—it’s a puzzlement as the king from the play “The King and I” would say. Here is a true story from a kindergarten teacher. I think it says so much about what God looks like!

The kindergarten teacher asked her students to draw a picture of what was the most important person or thing to them. At this age in life, she was wondering what kind of feedback would come from these tender souls. One precocious boy was laboring hard on his drawing, in fact so hard, everyone else had finished but he was still diligently working on it.

Not wanting him to feel left behind, the teacher graciously walked back and put her arm around his shoulder and asked with enthusiasm, “What are you drawing—it must be very wonderful?” Without stopping his work or looking up, he replied “I’m drawing a picture of God.” The teacher said gently replies, “Oh—but no one knows what God looks like.” With the confidence of an adult, he stated loudly: “They will when I’m done with it.”

I laugh at this true story because in all honesty, we don’t know God looks like—or do we? And that is where Jesus comes in. In Hebrews we find that “Jesus perfectly mirrors God and is stamped with God’s nature” (Heb 1:3). So, in knowing Jesus we know what God looks like.

But how about the millions that don’t know Jesus? How would they know him and God? Well, that’s where you and I come in. We were “made in God’s image” which means we are to reflect God’s grace, love, joy, and radiance to a dark world. In other words, how we live, what we say and do, how we care and so much more—all of this reflects the power of God working in us and gives a “picture of God” to this world.

BUT…turn the pages of our lives and we see we have a slight problem with all of this. When the world sees people of faith not living this way they don’t see God at all! Instead, they see a bunch of selfish people who are concerned about one thing: themselves. Ooops…I’m thinking we have some work to do here. I certainly know I do.

We could make pages of the sins we all secretly do but we don’t need to because our conscience is right there letting us know, speaking to us saying “this isn’t right, do don’t this, there are repercussions and tough consequences” …yet we do it anyway and the world sees the “faith we profess” as a sham, especially when we get on our high-horses in spouting Scripture, theology, and for sure having a pristine Bible on the coffee table!

As two ladies wrote to a TV evangelist, “I thought you loved Jesus, you just love yourself and your money. You are a phony and you are sending the wrong message to people.” I know these women well—they are my mother and mother-in-law who, years ago, watched Jim Baker. The deceit from this man tore their hearts apart, as well as millions who trusted him. I wonder how many thought his scam was God’s scam?

We are not God—oh am I thankful for that—but we are the image of God, the representation of Jesus to the world. Are we going to shine with grace, forgiveness, compassion and truth, or paint “God’s picture” as selfish, caring only about self, etc. That is the choice we have and sadly, we often have not “chosen well.”

As Carrie ten Boom once did, perhaps we should, too. She wrote: “I tape a note to my bathroom mirror that says ‘you are the image of God-act like it.’ And when that paper degraded, she put up a new one! Imagine the “face of God” folks witnessed in this wonderful woman’s life and ministry. She could do this even though she had been imprisoned in a Nazi camp! What love, what faith, and what incredible strength God gave her to represent Jesus to those who were dying.

I’ll end this devotion with a challenge: what picture of God do you want to be?