What Does God Really Look Like?

Many years ago, I was sitting in a cozy living room with a close group of women friends drinking steaming mugs of herbal tea when one of our friends asked the group, “What does God look like to you?”  (Our friend was doing research for a graduate class in Christian spirituality and was writing about images of God.)  While the question seemed daunting at first, the ensuing conversation was as delicious as the cookies that accompanied our tea.

“A warm, wooly blanket,” one woman said.   “A large-bosomed African-American woman,” said another.  “A great big bird with a beautiful wingspan of soft feathers,” replied another.  We all had very specific images of the Divine that comforted us and represented a personal and concrete truth of how the Holy was in relationship with us – and vice versa. It was a fascinating conversation and enriched each of our understandings of how God “looks” to another.  Not only did none of us have the same image of God, but no one said that God looked like an old white man with a beard.  Not even close.  But the alternate images were rich and evocative, deepening our collective imagining of the ultimate Mystery we call God.

This week in our What Do I Really Believe? series at Patheos, we asked that very question — What Does God Really Look Like? — to a panel of scholars, musicians, church folk, non-church folk and college students to respond.  Their answers are as varied as those from my womens’ group.  I was particularly moved by one response from a woman who has been blind most of her life.  Her perspective on what God “looks like” is profound.  I share her comments below, and invite you to consider what God looks like for you, and join the conversation at our series here.

What Does God Really Look Like?

By Marcia Morrissey

I come at this question from a little different point of view. I lost my sight when I was 24 years old. I am totally blind, and have never seen my husband, son, daughter-in-law, or two precious granddaughters. I know them intimately — they are the closest people to me in my life — but I have never “seen” them. My son, David was born about four years after I lost my sight, and I was blind when I met and married my husband, Ed.

Yet I do “see” them. I can see them profoundly, in so many other ways. Through my other senses I “see” them. I can touch them, hear them, know them in the inside; their personalities, and all that that involves — ups, downs, moods and more.

Everyone wonders what God looks like, but the question can’t be answered on this side of heaven. The Bible gives us glimpses, but God is a mystery, and Spirit. We have the Lord, Jesus Christ who came down to earth in human form — the Incarnational mystery. We have Moses confronting God in the Burning Bush; his very name, “I AM” denotes mystery. When Jesus identifies himself to soldiers in the Garden of Gethsemane, he says “I am he . . . ” and the soldiers fell back, because the power of that name — the name of God — knocked all of them down. Or, perhaps, it was the name combined with the face of God, revealed in Christ.

In some ways I think that my blindness gives me an advantage. Not being able to see people with my eyes, when I meet new people I “see” them in perhaps a deeper, more accurate way. I “see” who they really are, and I am not stalled or prejudiced by outward appearances.

In some ways I think it is a little like knowing “what God really looks like.” I will know what my dear husband, son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughters look like when this life is over and we are with the Lord. I will also “see” God then, too.

I really don’t have to know what they, or God really looks like now. I know, love, and have an intimate relationship with my family, friends, and with God, and that is enough for me. That is true sight.

One time I told a friend in amazement, “The first thing I will be able to see again will be the Lord’s face!” Wow, I can’t imagine how wonderful that will be! It will be that way for everyone, but can you imagine not being able to see for so long, and then open your eyes, and see the Lord looking at you with so much love?

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