What does the face of God look like?
I'm not asking this to be facetious (meaning "humorous and flippant;" but a pretty good play on words, don't you think?). And I don't mean do you think of that picture that hung in all our Sunday School rooms of Jesus as a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. You know the picture. He has long, blonde, wavy hair that is parted down the middle, an oval face, intense blue eyes, long aquiline nose, and his beard is perfectly groomed. Well, Popular Science Magazine did a cover story about 4 years ago about what Jesus probably looked like based on genetics and skeletons that archeologists have found of Jewish men from that region and same time. Sort of shattered in my mind what I thought He would look like. He probably would have been very short in stature, hirsute (polite word for "hairy"), with very dark curly hair and almost black eyes. The shape of his head would have been round, and His nose would have been kind of bulbous and pushed-in a bit. The picture they forensically created of Jesus was not of a good-looking man, and you know, the prophecy in Isaiah 53: 2 bears this out: "He hath no form nor comliness; and when we shall see Him there is no beauty that we should desire Him."

But I'm not really asking about what we think the actual physical appearance of God looks like. And I have a reason to pose this question: What does the face of God look like?.

My dad died on February 1 of this year. He was an angry, bitter, and unpleasant man for my entire life. After I got saved I tried to talk with him about God many times, but I could never crack the shell that he had built around himself. As he got older and sicker I was very worried that he would die not knowing Jesus. But an awesome thing happened for me that put my heart to rest about his salvation. In January 2005 I had a word of prophecy spoken over me that said God had heard the cry of my heart for my family. My entire family was roped-in by God; that there was only so far that my family members could go to avoid Him, but ultimately they would be saved in His time and for His glory. So I had the faith and the confident expectation ("hope") that he was not going to die before he got saved.

And something miraculous did happen that last week my dad was alive. My husband, my brother, and I drove to the state where my parents live, and during our final visit with him I asked him if he would accept that Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay his sin debt and so that he could have eternal life. (My brother was angrily kicking me under the chair because he was so mad).

My dad said an interesting thing. he said that he had always known about God and Jesus, and he did believe that Jesus was his Lord and Savior. BUT.....when his father (my grandfather, who I never knew) died in 1947 the parish priest refused to do a funeral service for him or bury him because he had owned a bar. The priest judged my grandfather as unworthy to receive the final Catholic sacraments because he owned a bar. I was asounded!!! My dad had never told this story to anyone! He had kept this one (admittedly horrible) incident in his heart for 59 years, allowing his hatred for one man to color and shape every part of his life! At that moment I told my dad about the God that I know and love, a God whose love for all men is so great, and His desire for a relationship with us is so overriding, that He made the way, through Jesus' sacrifice, for us to be together as a family. My mom's pastor saw him the next day, and it was then that my dad prayed and accepted Jesus into his life.

When the three of us drove home late that Saturday night I was sitting alone in the back seat of the car listening to the rain that was pounding on the roof. My husband and brother were sitting in the front seats talking, but I couldn't hear what they were saying, so I was sort of lost in my own little world. I asked God, "Why did my father spend all those years in hatred and bitterness? Why would he never even attempt to listen to me (or anyone else, for that matter) all the times I tried to talk with him about You"? And God said back to me, "BECAUSE TO YOUR DAD THE FACE OF GOD WAS SOME ANGRY OLD PRIEST WHO DID NOT LOVE ME, AND WHO DID NOT REPRESENT ME WELL ON THE EARTH."

Do we accept, as Christians, that we have the awesome privilege of representing God on earth? The dictionary defines "privilege" as "A special advantage, immunity, permission, right, or benefit granted to and to be enjoyed by an individual or class. Such a right or advantage held as a prerogative of status or rank".
We have the advantage, the right, and the rank to be God's ambassadors; his FACE on earth. Condoleeza Rice as the Secretary of State is the face of the United States to all other countries of the world. She represents who and what the United States is. How are you and I representing God in our little corners of the world? What is the face of God you are showing?

You know, I could blame that angry priest from 1947 for what he did to my father. But I am also at fault for being for many years judgemental and legalistic about God to my father. I judged him as unworthy of a relationship with me because of his anger toward me. Jesus purposely ate at the tables and traveled with people that His society deemed umworthy of love or recognition. He is not a respector of persons, and His love for all people is unconditional. And I believe that my dad is in heaven. Better late than never!!

So I ask again, "What does the face of God look like?"
Or better, "How are we representing the face of God on earth?"