What do you think God looks like?
Do you picture Him an old man with a long white beard, a white robe, and a white staff (kind of like Gandalf)?
Or maybe when you think of God, you picture the classic pretty “white man” Jesus with the long flowing blonde hair that would make any girl jealous.
Or, is the first thing to pop into your mind a little golden statue of a chubby half-naked Buddha?
I didn’t realize it until recently, but sometimes I picture God as a big black void.
When I first started to think about it, it scared me. I wondered if maybe I pictured Him that way because I really didn’t believe in Him at all. It scared the heck out of me to think I might have been an atheist all along and never known it. But no, I’m not an atheist, and that thought didn’t stick around for very long. I did, however, continue to wonder why, in my mind, is God a void, big, empty, and dark?
I thought about it, and thought about it, and then, finally, started to pray about it. After all, who better to ask than the subject Himself?
A funny thing happened as I closed my eyes and started to pray. I realized that with my eyes closed, all I could see was a big black void, darkness. I stopped short and slapped my forehead. Duh!
It makes sense: Most of the time when I talk to God, out of habit, I close my eyes, and what do I see? Darkness. So what image automatically surfaces in my mind when I think of God?
Now, I’m not saying that praying with our eyes closed is always a bad thing. The biggest advantage is that it keeps us focused (if we don’t fall asleep). For me, the habit formed way back as a little kid just learning how to pray in Sunday school.
“OK, everybody fold your hands and put them in your lap,” the Sunday-school teacher would say, “Good! Now bow your heads and close your eyes and let’s pray. Dear Jesus…”
Of course, there was always the smart aleck or tattle-tale who, at the end of the prayer, would raise his or her hand, and when the teacher called on him or her, would point to a kid across the room and say, “He had his eyes open!”
Overall, I think that closing our eyes when we pray keeps us (both as children and adults) from getting distracted, so yes, it can be a good thing. However, it can also turn into a bad thing.
I don’t want to envision God as a big black void. But as I thought about it, I realized that no one on this earth really knows what He does look like. So no matter how I picture him, it’s going to be inaccurate. I didn’t like that thought either.
Then a verse from the Bible popped into my head. Romans 1:20 says, “His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made…” (ESV)
So, today I decided to try something. I went for a walk at a place where His attributes are very clear through His creation, and I talked to Him (with my eyes open). Sure, I’d done it many times before. I’ve always felt closest to God when closest to nature, but I wanted to purposefully try to get a glimpse of Him through His creation while talking with Him. And, it worked.
Now, I’m not saying that God is a tree, or a bird, or a lake, but that some of who He is can be seen through those things: His beauty, His power, His awesomeness, his complexity. And I think these are probably more accurate pictures of who God is than pictures of Gandalf or Buddha.
So, my challenge for you is to make some time to get alone with God surrounded by nature and just talk to Him, with your eyes (and heart) open.