The Human Face of God — A LifeWords Devotion

9 Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me. (NLT)

I struggle to conceive of God. When I pray to God I sometimes find myself wondering just who it is I am praying to. I can read of his character in the Bible, but this is not quite the point. I need something more concrete, more tangible.

And so I find Jesus. Like Philip, I want to ‘see’ the Father. Like Philip, I am given the same answer. If you want to know what God is like, take a good look at Jesus. He is God spelling himself out in a language we humans can understand. He puts on visible display the characteristics of God recorded in Scripture.

Whenever we are tempted to distort our concept of God, we turn to Jesus. Is our ‘God’ a vengeful tyrant? Look at Jesus. Is our ‘God’ an indulgent, weak as water grandad? Look at Jesus. Is our ‘God’ some distant, passive observer of human life? Look at Jesus.

True, we don’t actually know what Jesus looked like. But in my reflections and prayers, I can safely imagine Jesus as a walking, talking human being. And I can understand what he said and what he did. And in doing so, I find myself imagining God. Because Jesus is the human face of God.

Blessings
David Reay