“Aunt ***, when you close your eyes, what does God look like? Let me tell you what I think…I think He looks like a bright shining light.”
As I was drifting to sleep, those words remained floating through my mind. I combined his picture with my mine and I began to wonder how others would answer it. What would God look like if all of the pictures came together?
Would it be comforting or would it be frightening?
With all of our unique perspectives and life experiences, I have no idea what kind of image it would be.
For me, God represents strength, comfort, and solace…arms ready to embrace. For others, he may represent anger and judgement…sword in hand, ready to strike.
As I welcome Easter this morning, and ponder the mystical parts of the story, I remember Friday and God’s enormous grief when the earth shook and went dark. And then on Sunday morning, there is Jesus as he began to walk the earth again.
There are many opinions about God but the way I see it is that he will always, always represent hope and love. It’s people who mess up his image, not what Scripture tells us about him.
So when you close your eyes, what does God look like to you?
Loella Reina 
I began a personal exercise about a year ago and it is transforming my view of God. When I say the word “God”, my mind goes to my view of God. But when I say the word “God” to another, then their own personal views of God come to their mind. So I felt like anything I might want to share about God was not going to be communicated effectively because I am communicating from my perspective but it is being received through their perspective; which could involve many things like fear, resentment, anger, etc. I also felt like my view of God was being restricted by my own thoughts, feelings, teachings, past experiences and God is so much more! So I began, at least within myself and among my very close friends, to refer to God as “The Universe”. The universe is so big and expansive and awe-inspiring and there is so much we don’t know about it. And there seems to be no boundaries! It has little definition. And I realized that my view of God had the boundaries I had placed based on past experiences; both good and bad. So this exercise expanded my boundaries and even, sometimes, deleted them. With those who do not know of my exercise, I often use the word “Creator” instead of “Universe” so I don’t sound too wierd! 😉 To me, God is the ocean: Moving and deep and mysterious and I feel so small next to it; yet God sees ME. The ocean invites me and I can touch it, feel it, and be a part of it.
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God is everything. He is in everything. He isn’t a physical form, except within Jesus Christ. God has no sex, no race, no age. So when someone asks me “What is God?” I answer that God is everything good. Everything good on this earth, everything good within us, and in everything that He created.
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To me He is perfect peace. Less of an image and more of a place when I am enveloped in His love and acceptance and forgiveness. Where I am complete, enough, lacking in nothing. He is where I long to dwell. Where hurt is gone, where love is full to every facet of my soul. Where correction is gentle and I long to just sit, wrapped up in God’s perfect peace.
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