What Does My God Look Like? by Greg Creek

It’s been a little over a week since my son was born. As our first child, my wife, Gina, and I are just relishing every minute, including the late nights! Everyone is assuming this blog will be about my child, and it is, but most of it is not, which will make sense soon.

           

I have been struggling with how to teach my child about God. More specifically, I am struggling with the God I will portray to my child. What is my God like? What does my God look like to others? And, of course, how will my God look to my son? Talk is cheap. What do my actions say about my relationship with God?

One morning, while still at the hospital, I was ruminating on this with a newborn in my lap and mom catching up on some sleep. As I thought about the previous couple of days, what overwhelmed my heart was how much support we received from our friends and family.

The previous day was long, as most days are with a newborn, and we really needed some sleep. One of our friends offered to stay for a little bit to spend time with little Gideon while we got some late-night sleep. This was at the end of a day in which people showed up all day with gifts, food, Advil, and offers of anything we needed. I knew that, whatever I said, they would have gone to get it.

As the memories from the previous days and the support we received flooded my brain, I realized that maybe what I was experiencing was a very concrete way to show my son a picture of God. For me, it was this amazing “ah-hah!” moment when I realized all these people were the hands and feet of God, and that was how I could show God to my son.

The concept of people being God’s hands and feet is something of which many Christians are aware. It is something that I remember being taught as a small child. In Matthew’s Gospel in the Bible, Jesus is recorded in 5:16 as saying “Let your light shine before others that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” (NIV) Yet here I was as an adult, feeling like I was discovering this for the first time—God’s concrete attributes are something that we point to in others. It is not something we can try and define and explain and theologize, but a person to whom we point and say, “Here’s what Jesus looks like.”

This experience is a direct result of my son, but I don’t think it is unique to me or to a new arrival. You may be having a similar experience as well. Perhaps you are struggling to find ways for Jesus to be more real to you, your children, or your friends.

I’d like to invite you to look to others. Just typing the previous sentence is weird because we typically say, “look to Jesus.” But based on the words of Jesus in Matthew, look to the goodness of others, and let God be glorified and made more tangible in our lives.

Greg Creek