The God Gallery: Images of the Holy Introduction

Introduction

To visualize that which doesn't exist, yet to believe with confidence that it can be realized, is truly something miraculous.

 Richard Sagor

Welcome to the God Gallery

What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God himself, and the most portentous fact about any man [or woman] is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like.

A.W. Tozer

How do we see God? What is God like? What does God look like? Ask the question of a group of young children and we’re likely to get a description of a slender Santa Claus dressed in white, sitting on a throne, maybe with some harp-strumming angels in the background. That may be a common image of God, but it’s not one that’s quite scripturally accurate. As Jesus reminds us in John 6:46, “No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father.”

 Yet it has been an intriguing question since creation, when God pronounced that people were created in the image of God. However, we have no photos, no video, and no portraits that show us who God is or what God looks like, and those who saw God face to face were at a loss for words in their attempt to describe the glory that they experienced. 

Although we have no video footage, what we do have is the Bible, a collection of writings inspired by God, and the pages of the Bible reveal the face of God through the use of words and images. Some of these images are revealed in the actions of God, some are from the world of nature (fire, rock), some provide a glimpse of God through the animal world (lion, lamb, eagle), while still others come from relationships between people (father, mother, and bridegroom).

 

THE FULLNESS OF GOD

Christ the path and Christ the door.

Christ the bread and welcome cup.

Christ the word and cleansing bath.

Christ the robe and Christ the fire.

Christ the dawn and blazing sun.

Christ the light and Christ the star.

Christ the beginning and the end.

Christ our life and Christ our home.

Samuel Torvend

 

What sometimes happens in our faith development is that we get stuck on one or two images of God that limit our understanding of the Almighty. It’s as though we have one picture sitting on our nightstand, and we fail to see that there’s a gallery lined with images just waiting for us to step in and see for ourselves. The chapters of this book are designed to be a series of artwork hanging on the wall of a God gallery of images that will help us to know God better.

As we wander through the gallery, we will find what Pat McCloskey understands, that “God is neither an ogre in the Hebrew Scriptures nor an indulgent grandfather in the New Testament. The Bible contains varied images of God because God inspired diverse images.”

While we may find a favorite image or two, what we will come to see is that no one image of God stands alone. It is only when taken together that we see the mercy and justice, the glory and the grace, and the majesty and intimacy of our God. As an example, we see that combination of images in Zephaniah 3:17.

The Lord your God is with you: God as Companion
The Mighty Warrior who saves: God as Warrior
He will take great delight in you: God as Party Host
In his love he will no longer rebuke you: God as Abba
But will rejoice over you with singing: God as Chief Musician

We do have a wide selection of images available to us on the pages of Scripture, and we also have the model given to us through the life of Jesus. These provide us with a good sense of the nature and person of God, but while we continue to walk the earth as humans, we still find that “we see through a glass darkly,” as Paul reminds us in I Corinthians 13:12, for God is beyond our full understanding.  However, as Paul promises and as the old hymn echoes, one day we shall “see him face to face.” But until that day, we can draw closer to God by spending time in the gallery of God images that the Bible provides for us.