Jesus?

If you've seen Me, you've seen the Father...

John 14:9

I grew up in a very conservative household and attended a fundamentalist church.  My mother's view of God was much more akin to Titan than to Jehovah.  Her "God" was One that sat in the heavens with a shaft of lightning in His hand, just waiting for us to do something wrong so that He could zap us.  Strict, harsh, demanding, sober, unfeeling - those were the words I might have used if someone had asked me to describe what God was like.

When I was a young adult, a wonderful artist named Darrel Tank drew a series of pictures of Jesus from a very different perspective.  There was a packaged set for sale in our Christian bookstore, and the picture above was the one that was displayed on top.  The drawing is breathtaking.  Here are two teenage boys painting a house - or at least they are supposed to be painting the house.  Mostly they are having a wonderful time painting each other.  And there - in the window - is Jesus himself, grinning like a Cheshire cat and thoroughly enjoying the shenanigans. 

I remember to this day my utter disbelief as I stared at Tank's artwork.  Jesus?  Jesus laughing?  Jesus with a sense of humor?  Jesus enjoying (nee approving of) a boyhood prank?  What Jesus was this?  Certainly not the one I was raised with!  I framed that picture and displayed it on my bedroom wall, where I could gaze at it every day - a constant reminder that maybe my childhood “lightning bolt” view of God was not quite accurate.

Does God have a personality?  I grew up believing that God didn't have so much a personality as a demeanor, and a distinctly unpleasant one.  Darryl Tank's artwork prompted me to take another look at the God I thought I knew.

* 

Open our eyes, Lord, we want to see Jesus,

To reach out and touch Him, and say that we love Him.

Open our ears, Lord, and help us to listen.

Open our eyes, Lord, we want to see Jesus.

The Faith We Sing, No. 2086