What Does God Look Like?

Since you saw no form on the day that the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure . . . Deuteronomy 4:15-16

As I’ve mentioned previously, I grew up in church with a pastor for a father. Behind my father every Sunday, as he preached from the pulpit, hung a painting of Christ. For years, and probably to this day, that image has represented how I see Jesus in my mind. This is of course, is probably absurd. That image – if I’m recalling the right one – was painted only 100 years ago, 2,000 years after Jesus lived. Perhaps the artist was inspired by God, but that fair-skinned, wavy-haired Jesus looks more like a Greek god than what a first century Jewish man probably looked like. Still, because of that painting, that is how I picture Jesus when I pray.

In today’s passage, God warned against making any image that represented him. In the story, he reminded his people that when he spoke audibly to them, they saw a fire, and not a face. He did this so that they wouldn’t try to recreate an image of what they saw. God knew man’s propensity to worship the gods of his own making, and he warned his people against it.

I’m prone to worship the wrong things. That is the lesson of today’s passage. I don’t often think of it in religious terms, but whatever I pursue above all becomes my god. In my addiction, my drug was my god. I sacrificed everything – faith, family, career – to to this false god, destroying my life. Now, even in recovery though, I find it dreadfully easy to continue to worship false gods. If I look at my life, asking what I spend the most time and effort on, I must ask myself if I’m worshipping family, career, or the gym. These things aren’t inherently bad, but anything that I put in the place of God, becomes my god. Whatever I pursue above all, is the thing that I worship. When I put anything or anyone in the place of God, my life is out of order.

So, instead of asking what God looks like, perhaps a better question is this – What does my god look like? Does my god look exactly like my job? Does he look like my gym? Or do I seek the one true God above all, daily following his will. If I take an honest look at my life, I’ll be able to see what I pursue above all else. Whatever that thing or person is, that is the thing that I worship. That is my god. What does my god look like?