Image Is Everything

Our image of God determines everything. Think about it. What we believe to be true about anyone determines how we relate to them. It is no less true for what we believe about God. In fact, people who study different cultures tell us a culture is defined by the people’s understanding, or rejection, of God. This is one of the reasons why worship is so important. Worship helps us grow in our understanding and appreciation of who God is.

Years ago, actually decades ago, I saw a short movie by a Christian comedian sketching out different views of God. He portrayed God as a mean traffic cop that lived for the opportunity to catch people violating the rules; as a sleepy old man in a rocking chair on a huge porch that only woke up to take his medicine and wasn’t really aware of what was going on in his creation; as a plump cherub who just wanted everyone to luuuuvvvv everyone else. When our view of God is limited to any one of these three understandings, or even some combination of all three or some other dwarfed understanding of who God is, we will have difficulty in our relationship with God. We will not experience or reflect the majestic, transformational power of his love.

So what is God really like? There is not room to answer that question in this article, even if I felt I could. When we read the Bible, it is obvious God wants to be known by us. It is also obvious there are aspects about God that are mysterious to us. We don’t fully comprehend him. Why would we? He is eternal. We are not. He is all powerful. We are not. He is perfect in every way. We are not. He knows everything. We do not. He is creator. We are created. The list could go on about the differences between God and us that would explain why we cannot fully understand nor appreciate the full wonder of who he is. Yet, he makes himself known to us in ways we can understand! Even that tells us something about who he is. The one who does not need us and is so far above us we cannot possibly comprehend him desires to be known and loved by us.

This is why we worship God. There are so many reasons to value him above all other things. At the same time, when we worship God it grounds us in what is truly real and important. In one sense we know as much about God as we need to know. In another sense, our understanding of who he is and what that means will be the pursuit of our lives, a pursuit we cannot engage without taking time to passionately worship him.