I am a hospice chaplain serving as the Spiritual Care Coordinator of a hospice & home health agency. I consider it a privilege to be able to spend some of the most intimate times of a person's life with them.

Saturday, December 16, 2006

What color is the face of God?


In the Genesis story we find the following account of creation:

Genesis 1:26-28 (NRSV)

Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth." 27So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 28God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth."

When I read this scripture I understand that we, humankind, have been created in God's image, not the other way around. I believe that in our search for God, we need to find a God who has the same color of skin as us for us to relate to God personally. But I don't read that God was created in our image. If he were then I could surmise that the color of God's face is white, or black, or brown, or yellow. However I believe the color of God's face is not a specific color but rather the combination of all colors, that being light.


If God is the color of light than all colors are present in God's image. Pretty neat when you think about it. If we are of different colors than I would propose to you that each of us has a little bit of God's light in us, that being the color of our own face.


Just a thought but one I needed to share.

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