What does your God look like?
Bearded old man in the clouds? Eastern mystic? Baby in a feed trough? Powerful king or military man? Jewish carpenter? Accountant? Something really different? For a lot of folks, they don't express who they think God is, what God might look like or who God includes as a part of God's people! Sometimes it's because they haven't thought it through. Sometimes it's because they don't want to say what they really think in front of other. What about yourself? What do you think God looks like?
Yes, please spare me the God is spirit, etc responses - I know that - I am simply opening the door for anyone interested to say who they think God is, what God's character is, what God's personality is, etc. Also, don't say, 'Just read the Bible' and thus avoid the question! To many times, we offer not too well thought out answers that we've heard our whole lives but haven't really spent time reflecting on.
Leon Barnes, our pulpit minister, is teaching a series of classes using the same title as this post. It'd be interesting to see what other think as a backdrop for him to consider as he teaches this class and answers questions that people have about it. Thanks for thinking about it...
posted by Wade Poe at 4:59 PM
3 Comments:
As I have gotten older, my relationship with God has become less of an authority figure and more of a friend. That is probably part in due to my growing spiritually and the struggles that God has taken me through.
OK, this is 15 months after the original post -- not a lot of traffic on this blog, I see -- but the first thing that comes to mind is the beginning of a song by a folksinging husband and wife duo, Over the Rhine:
"The last time I saw Jesus
I was drinking Bloody Marys in the South
In a barroom in New Orleans
Rinsin' out the bad taste in my mouth
She wore a dark and faded blazer
With a little of the lining hanging out
When the jukebox played Miss Dorothy Moore
I knew that it was him without a doubt ..."
Then that makes me think of that show "Joan of Arcadia." I think God can show up in all kinds of unexpected places and outfits. Rays of sun streaming through clouds -- I've always thought of that as the fingers of God.
Honestly, though, when I'm praying, I imagine God listening somewhere above me. Or maybe riding in the back seat when I pray while driving. More the sense of God's presence than any visual image.
I like that..."maybe riding in the back seat when I pray while driving". Recently I watched "Bruce Almighty" again and Morgan Freeman's "God" was really good. Loved the ending when he was listening to Bruce pray. Thanks for the comment!
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