Curious about what and how modern artists conceived of God, I checked out 271 modern images of God on Pinterest.
Surprise!
All the images of God were male, and there were about three images of a female Jesus on the cross.
Now if your father or father figure was loving, caring and involved in your life as you grew up, then the image of a Father God could bring comfort, and a feeling of safety and familiarity to you.
I will not forget you. Behold, I have graven you on the palms of my hands.
Is.49:15-16
But what of those who grew up abused emotionally, physically, and/or sexually by your father, or else dad was indifferent, frequently absent, or abandoned the family all together? The father image of God is not inducive then to trust or warm, safe feelings.
Are There Alternatives?
Bet you’ve never heard of God referred to as a nursing mother (1), or Dame Wisdom (2) or a mother hen (3) or eagle (4), or as a God with breasts (5), or giving birth (6), or mother (7). Yet all of these images are found in the Bible, mostly in the Old Testament. (See bottom of page for references)
Imagine this…
God is like a mother eagle who shows her eaglets how to fly. When mother eagle thinks her eaglets are ready, she swoops down and pushes her young out of the nest to teach them to fly. Squawking and fluttering, they tumble down, frantically pumping their wings. If they get tired or afraid, mother eagle swoops in below them, thrusting out a wing and catches her frightened babies with her majestic wings.
Or this…
O love and hatch us
Wondrous hen!
We dwell in thy kingdom
Our hen of heaven.
African prayer
Then there are the inanimate images that have been used as comparisons like: fortress, King, Lord, Jehovah, refuge, rock, shield, strength, fire, love, stronghold, help, Glory.
Many names carry the implication of specific roles, skills or talents as in Shepherd, Midwife, Homemaker, Baker woman, Creator, Grandfather, Potter, Dancer, Gardener, Vineyard keeper, Architect, Judge, Weaver, Artist.
Take the ending of James Weldon Johnson’s wonderful poem, The Creation…
…”Up from the bed of the river
God scooped the clay;
And by the bank of the river
He kneeled him down;
and there the great God Almighty
Who lit the sun and fixed it
in the sky,
Who flung the stars to the most
far corner of the night,
Who rounded the earth in the
middle of his hand;
This Great God,
Like a mammy bending over her baby,
Kneeled down in the dust
toiling over a lump of clay
Till he shaped it in his own image;
Then into it he blew the breath of life,
And man became a living soul.
Amen. Amen”
These examples are such wonderful, rich imagery that is so rarely used to denote God!
We Use Comparisons to Better Understand
What we need to remember is that no term or name captures the essence of God.
It’s kind of like an eternal onion where we peel off one layer only to find another one underneath.
Or consider a cut diamond with unending facets- each facet a different view or image of God.
To limit one’s self to just the idea of a male father God is to put God into a matchbox! Many images give a more expansive idea of God.
Note that in all cases we are talking about something we know something about and then comparing or showing similarities with the nature or character of God.
So, in the case of a shepherd, the Israelites understood that a shepherd protected the flock even at the risk of his life, and that all which would help them prosper, like food and water, were provided. Certain aspects of God are like that as well. For a more complete understanding of the shepherd image, go here
I’m NOT saying that God is literally a shepherd, or a birthing mother, or a rock, or an eagle. But if each name is deeply considered, certain aspects implied in that name are attempts by humans to better describe God. That is why we use similes, and metaphors in our descriptions.
Metaphors and similes both call attention to how two different things are similar, so people listening to you can apply the qualities of one thing to the other.
The difference between metaphors and similes is that similes hit you over the head with the comparison by using explicit words such as “like” or “as,” — When Jon Bon Jovi sings “My heart is like an open highway,” that’s a simile because he used the word “like” to directly make the comparison.
Metaphors, on the other hand, don’t use direct comparison words. When Tom Cochrane sings “Life is a Highway,” that’s a metaphor because there’s no word such as “like” or “as.” Metaphors are a bit more subtle.
You can remember the difference between similes and metaphors by remembering that simile has the letter l in it, just like the word “like,” which you often use in a simile. Stever Robbins
Here’s an example containing both simile and metaphor…
Your face is always just beyond
Like a light in snow.
I cannot compare you, your hands
Your face to anything.
No symbol holds
Yet you are no moth in frailty.
Your presence is flame and power.
And you are more solid than earth,
Your hands more serviceable
More human than mine.
Infinite gentleness, infinite power,
I love you like a fainting lover.
But my love poems are never enough.
For you are the poet, the lover,
And the poem.
Write Thou me!
Susan McCaslin
Sometimes images are used to imagine a God who participates with us and where there is a kind of partnership.
When long before time and the worlds were begun,
When there was no earth and no sky and no sun,
and all was deep silence and night reigned supreme,
And even our Maker had only a dream…
…the silence was broken when God sang the Song,
and light pierced the darkness and rhythm began,
and with its first birth-cries creation was born,
and creaturely voices sang praise to the morn…
…to you, God the Singer, our voices we raise,
To you, Song Incarnate, we give all our praise,
To you, Holy Spirit, our life and our breath,
Be glory forever, through life and
through death. Peter W.A. Davison 
Or this one from the song, Lord of the Dance
Dance then, wherever you may be
I am the Lord of the Dance, said He!
And I’ll lead you all, wherever you may be
And I’ll lead you all in the Dance, said He!
Many of the terms used in the past had significant meaning for the peoples of those times.
An Image like fortress or shield or stronghold or rock meant protection and safety, whereas midwife or shepherd or nursing mother bespoke nurture and maternal caring.
Today is a different time, more complex, more modern.
Are There More Contemporary Images of God ?
There are a number of ones that provide fresh insight. God has been named Infinite Mind or Infinite Wisdom, Eternal Love, Higher or Cosmic Consciousness, the Great I Am, The Ground of All Being.
All of these move beyond the gender and human figure of old, and address a much broader, universal idea of God.
Or Consider Other Possibilities.
ENERGY
Perhaps God is pure energy.
At one time energy was called vis viva or living force. Physics tells us that energy is neither created nor destroyed. It is an integral part of chemistry, biology, earth sciences, cosmology, Quantum mechanics, and relativity.
Christianity, Judaism and other religions of the world define spiritual energy as coming from the divine love of God, and is eternal and constant.
Spiritual energy is no less real than any other energy, like electricity for example, but is vastly more important. Spiritual energy is prana (also known as “universal life force” or “qi”) carried by pure love. George King
The mysterious cosmic energy is the substratum of all the things and all the beings of the entire universe. It is an eternal song of the Divine. It is continuously resounding in silence on the background of everything that exists.” ― Amit Ray
“If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.”
―Nikola Tesla
STRING THEORY
Physics has proposed a theory that all objects in our universe are composed of vibrating filaments (strings) and membranes (branes) of energy.
Called String Theory, perhaps God is the vibration that keeps the building blocks of matter in movement.
String Theory describes energy and matter as being composed of tiny,
wiggling strands of energy that look like strings.
And the pitch of a string’s vibration determines the nature of its effect.
– Roy H. Williams
Everything is in motion.
Everything flows.
Everything is vibrating.
– William Hazlitt
According to String Theory, what appears to be empty
space is actually a tumultuous ocean of strings vibrating
at the precise frequencies that create the 4 dimensions you and I call height, width, depth and time.
– Roy H. Williams
LIGHT
Or light. Eternal Light. Electromagnetism.
People who have experienced near-death experiences, report seeing a light brighter than the sun. Light sources are found everywhere, from the cosmos down to the tiny atom. The modern theory of quantum mechanics came to picture light as (in some sense) both a particle and a wave. This dual wave-like and particle-like nature of light is known as the wave–particle duality.
“We, and the universe we live in, produce and operate in a sea of natural and unnatural electrical and magnetic fields. The earth, for example, pulses at about 10 Hz, like a small engine. Our bodies are really electromagnetic machines. We simply can’t move a muscle or produce a thought without an electrical impulse – and wherever there is electricity, a magnetic field is also produced, which is why we link the two together into one word: electromagnetic.” Ann Louise Gittleman”
State of Society Today
But the world has changed radically. We have global internet, and people grow up with electronics and technology as part of their daily life.
The science mind-set has turned many people into agnostics or atheists. They seem to feel no need for a god. They can do it all themselves, thank you very much.
HOWEVER…
Depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide. Almost 75% of people with mental disorders remain untreated in developing countries with almost 1 million people taking their lives each year. Anxiety disorders affect 25.1% of children between 13 and 18 years old.
In addition, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), 1 in 13 globally suffers from anxiety. The WHO reports that anxiety disorders are the most common mental disorders worldwide with specific phobia, major depressive disorder and social phobia being the most common anxiety disorders. ADAA facts and statistics
Statistics also show:
- 65% of North Americans take prescription medications daily, 43% take mood altering prescriptions regularly.
- There were over 3.3 Billion prescriptions filled in America in 2002 (12 times the U.S’s population – that’s 12 prescriptions for every man, woman, and child in the U.S. that year).
- Paxil and Zoloft (two of the more popular anti-anxiety medications) ranked 7th and 8th in the top ten prescribed medications in the US (these two medications totaled almost $5 Billion in sales in 2002).
- Recreational drugs are also used to cope with anxiety. 42% of young adults in America regularly use recreational drugs (National Institute on Drug Abuse) AnxietyCentre.com
Here are more alarming statistics
- In 2016, nearly 45,000 Americans age 10 or older died by suicide. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death and is one of just three leading causes that are on the rise.
- Suicide rates rose across the US from 1999 to 2016.
- Suicide rates have been rising in nearly every state, according to the latest Vital Signs report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
- And a 2015 report showed that there were 1.25 million violent crimes in the U.S. that year.
Me thinks our society is stressed out big time, violence keeps escalating, people are so pissed about politics and other issues that they can’t talk civilly with each other, and no one seems happy or joyful any more.
So how is this no God thing working out for everyone?
Try a New Approach
What if you were to adopt a new image of God that resonates with you? Seems to me that your image would be just as valid as other more traditional ones. Think about some of the above mentioned ones- or come up with a personal image that has significance for you personally.
No matter what image you choose, it will still only carry a small smidgeon of God’s nature, but that meaning will be important to you!
For me, the image of God as Eternal Light is a very powerful one. Blaze-Illumination- Radiance- Luminous- LUX!
Yes, but how can you pray to light?
Ah…that’s a great question, and one for another post someday.
Lo, my footprints are even now upon the mystic path,
The spirit path that ever lies before us,
Verily my footprints are on that path.
My footprints are even now upon that mystic path.
Osage, “Spirit Song”
Biblical References
1- Isaiah 49:15, 66:11-13, Numbers 11:12-13
2- Proverbs 1:20-33, 3:19, 4:11,22,26, 8:27,30-31, Psalm 104:21, 136:5
3- Psalm 17:8-9, 57:1, 61:4, 91:4, Matthew 23:27
4- Exodus 19:4, Deuteronomy 32:11-12, Job 39:27-30 Isaiah 40:31-32
5- El-Shaddai= breasted God, or God with breasts, eventually changed to God of the Mountains, and then to God Almighty.
6. Deuteronomy 32:18, Job 38:8, Isaiah 42:14, Acts 17 26, 28
7. Job 10:10-20, Isaiah 46:3-4, 66:13-14, Hosea 11:1-4
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