“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple.” Isaiah 6:1, NKJV.
Someone asked me, “When you pray or think of God, what image comes into your mind?” I must admit, the question made me scratch my head as I have never thought about my personal image of God. However, with the thought clearly planted in my mind, strangely, I realize that I do not have any image of God. Fast forward to a few days ago, when reading The Knowledge of the Holy by A. W. Tozer. He wrote,
When we try to imagine what God is like we must of necessity use that-which-is-not-God as the raw material for our minds to work on; hence whatever we visualize God to be, He is not, for we have constructed our image out of that which He has made and what He has made is not God. If we insist upon trying to imagine Him, we end with an idol, made not with hands but with thoughts, and an idol of the mind is as offensive to God as an idol of the hand.
The Trinity, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit represent the Godhead, Three in One. Because Jesus became fully man, while remaining fully God, and since images of Jesus have been put on paper and human actors have portrayed earthly Jesus throughout time, we understandably have our personal images of what we think His physical appearance might look like. Lest anyone feel chastised by Tozer’s explanation of “imagining what God is like,” the point remains, that while trying to imagine God is totally understandable as part of our human curiosity, we must be careful not to reduce God by making Him fit where there is not enough room for His presence. God allowed Isaiah to “[see] the Lord…” and just His robe alone, “filled the temple.”
Job said it this way, “Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than the heavens above…They are deeper than the depths below…Their measure is longer than the earth and wider than the sea” (11:7-9, NIV).
How amazing that we have such a BIG God, who desires a personal relationship with each one of us. Thank You, Holy Father!
For deeper understanding, read Psalm 8.
(Tozer, A. W., The Knowledge of the Holy, HarperCollins Publishers, 1961.)