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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, \u201cWhat does God look like to you?\u201d \u00a0(Our friend was doing research for a graduate class in Christian spirituality and was writing about images of God.) \u00a0While the question seemed daunting at first, the ensuing conversation was as delicious as the cookies that accompanied our tea.<\/p>\n

\u201cA warm, wooly blanket,\u201d one woman said. \u00a0 \u201cA large-bosomed African-American woman,\u201d said another. \u00a0\u201cA great big bird with a beautiful wingspan of soft feathers,\u201d replied another. \u00a0We 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 \u2013 and vice versa. It was a fascinating conversation and enriched each of our understandings of how God \u201clooks\u201d to another. \u00a0Not 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. \u00a0Not even close. \u00a0But the alternate images were rich and evocative, deepening our collective imagining of the ultimate Mystery we call God.<\/p>\n

This week in our What Do I Really Believe?<\/a> series at Patheos, we asked that very question \u2014 What Does God Really Look Like? \u2014 to a panel of scholars, musicians, church folk, non-church folk and college students to respond. \u00a0Their answers are as varied as those from my womens\u2019 group. \u00a0I was particularly moved by one response from a woman who has been blind most of her life. \u00a0Her perspective on what God \u201clooks like\u201d is profound. \u00a0I share her comments below, and invite you to consider what God looks like for you, and join the conversation at our series here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What Does God Really Look Like?<\/em><\/p>\n

By Marcia Morrissey<\/em><\/p>\n

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 \u2014 they are the closest people to me in my life \u2014 but I have never \u201cseen\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

Yet I do \u201csee\u201d them. I can see them profoundly, in so many other ways. Through my other senses I \u201csee\u201d them. I can touch them, hear them, know them in the inside; their personalities, and all that that involves \u2014 ups, downs, moods and more.<\/p>\n

Everyone wonders what God looks like, but the question can\u2019t 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 \u2014 the Incarnational mystery. We have Moses confronting God in the Burning Bush; his very name, \u201cI AM\u201d denotes mystery. When Jesus identifies himself to soldiers in the Garden of Gethsemane, he says \u201cI am he . . . \u201d and the soldiers fell back, because the power of that name \u2014 the name of God \u2014 knocked all of them down. Or, perhaps, it was the name combined with the face of God, revealed in Christ.<\/p>\n

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 \u201csee\u201d them in perhaps a deeper, more accurate way. I \u201csee\u201d who they really are, and I am not stalled or prejudiced by outward appearances.<\/p>\n

In some ways I think it is a little like knowing \u201cwhat God really looks like.\u201d 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 \u201csee\u201d God then, too.<\/p>\n

I really don\u2019t\u00a0have<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n

One time I told a friend in amazement, \u201cThe first thing I will be able to see again will be the Lord\u2019s face!\u201d Wow, I can\u2019t 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?<\/p>\n

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