what does God look like?

I was reminded of a story about a Sunday school class asked to draw.
As the teacher walked around the room looking at the different artful enterprises she came to little Suzie.
Now little Suzie was fastidiously working at her drawing. The teacher asked Suzie what she was drawing, to which Suzie answered "I'm drawing a picture of God!" The teacher immediately corrected Suzie saying "Suzie no one knows what God looks like." And Suzie without looking up said "They will when I'm done."

That illustration is only one of what I believe are as many and varied as people are.

I read "The Shack" by William Paul Young last Summer. I'm not one for reading novels and fiction especially, but there was so much hype about it that I decided to buy and read "The Shack".

One of the things about the novel that caught my attention, and by no means the most important,was the description of God the author gave. A large beaming African-American woman would not be my first image of God for sure, but that's just me.

I've had different images of God ranging from a stern and nasty old man looking for a reason to can my butt (when I was a young person) to a number of very interesting personalities over the years since.
The different images of God that have populated my mind came as I changed and grew spiritually.

I would venture a guess that probably most if not all undergo such transformation of God images as a result of working on building a relationship with God.

I was reading another book last week ;Finding God in The Shack by Randal Rauser. On the subject of our formed images of God  the author was referring to the way a person sees and experiences care givers in our youth has an influence on how one perceives God (our image of God).

I am inclined to agree with the author  on that point since my first images of God were of a tyrannical being bent on exacting justice. The God I have come to know on this journey is a far cry from the God I was taught about. Scripture is full of just the opposite. How many times does God refrain from exacting his justice on an unrepentant populace? I didn't count it but I think you know what I mean, I hope.

And I must say I am much more comfortable with the later images.
This is just a thought that was going through my mind this morning and I decided that I would share it as my first offering on my return from a sojourn into the desert.

Thank you for your support in the past.

Francois