Allen Webster

Topic(s): Blessings, Faith

A five-year-old girl rushed up to her newborn brother in his hospital room and said, “Quick, what is God like?” She figured that, having just come from “Heaven,” he might have some inside information. Alas, he merely made a gurgling sound and rolled his eyes. Little girls are not the only ones who want to know what God looks like. Philip once requested of Jesus: “Shew us the Father” (John 14:8). Many of us have the same desire.

Consider: “No man hath seen God at any time” (John 1:18). “Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live” (Exodus 33:20). “Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape” (John 5:37). “God is a spirit” (John 4:24), thus “invisible” (Colossians 1:15; 1 Timothy 1:17). He dwells in the light which no man can approach unto (1 Timothy 6:16).

Nonetheless, it pleased Him to whom nothing is impossible to manifest Himself at times in some visible form. In the form of a “man,” He wrestled with Jacob (Genesis 32:24, 30). Abraham talked with Him (Genesis 18:22). Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy elders of Israel “saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone . . . they saw God, and did eat and drink” (Exodus 24:9-11). Moses, later, saw the “back parts” of God (Exodus 33:23). Yet, since the essence of God is spirit, and since our physical eyes cannot see spiritual beings, it remains true that in the absolute sense no man has seen God.

Still, we can “see” God. Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see¹ God” (Matthew 5:8). Jesus is not just saying that we will see God in heaven. A more literal translation is, “They shall be continuously seeing God for themselves.”² If we do not see Him in the here and now, we have no promise of seeing Him at all.

How can we see the invisible? “By faith . . . as seeing him who is invisible” (Hebrews 11:27). We see God by looking for Him. Two men were discussing New York City. One said that New York was a wicked place filled with cheap sensations and morally degraded people with sin on every corner. The other said New York was a grand place filled with art museums, great music, and stimulating lectures. It is a little of both. We see what we have trained ourselves to see. “Two men looked out from prison bars, One saw mud, the other saw the stars!” In every sphere of life, in every day and hour of life, we should condition ourselves to “see God.”

We can see God in Christ. Jesus told Philip that if he had seen Him, he had “seen” the Father (John 14:8-9; Hebrews 1:1-3). A person can see God in this world without ever laying eyes on a physical being. Those who see only with the eye, see very little. There were multitudes who looked upon Jesus and saw nothing but a man. To them He was as a root out of dry ground, without form or comeliness (Isaiah 53:2). They looked upon Him and trudged on their monotonous way without benefit. But there were others who saw Him with different eyes. As they looked into His face they became conscious of God. As they fellowshipped with Him they said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). And when He had gone home to heaven they still saw Him, as we can by reading of the life of His Son.

We can see God in nature. If an ordinary man goes out on a starry night, he sees only a bunch of pinpoints in the sky. An astronomer looks at the same sky and calls the stars and planets by their names. From the same sky, a navigator guides his ship safely to its destination. David looked at the same sky and saw the glory of God (Psalm 19:1-6). With the naked eye, we can see two or three thousand stars on a clear night. Our “North Star,” or Polaris, seems close, but scientists say that the light we see from that star started out from that star 407 years ago in the late 1600s. It had been on its way since about Shakespeare’s time! Further, there are many stars we see that are as much as 3,000 light years away. The light we see tonight started out when David wrote Psalm 19. These stars could explode and we wouldn’t know it for hundreds or even thousands of years.

Joel Chandler Harris saw in rabbits and foxes and opossums “Uncle Remus” stories that will live forever. We can look at the same animals and see the design and wisdom of God (cf. Proverbs 30:24-28). We can look at the human body and see God’s wonderful wisdom. “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works . . .” (Psalm 139:14). “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:20). Truly, “This is My Father’s World.”

We can see God in our blessings. Evidences of God’s goodness are all around us. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17; cf. Romans 8:28-39; Hebrews 13:5-6). We can’t take a breath, eat a bite, enjoy a smile, or warm by a sunbeam without acknowledging God’s wonderful benevolence.

We can see God in the Bible.  The Bible shows us God’s picture; it tells us His story; it invites us to become His friend. “He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel . . . And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD . . .” (Psalm 103:7; Exodus 24:4). Without the Bible, we would be left to guess who the obviously powerful and intelligent being was who set this world in motion.

Do you want to see God? Sir Isaac Newton said: “I can take my telescope and look millions and millions of miles into space, but I can lay it aside and go into my room, shut my door, get down on my knees in earnest prayer, and see more of heaven and get closer to God than I can assisted by all the telescopes . . . on earth.” James said, “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you” (4:8). The only way is to have a pure heart (Psalm 17:15; 41:12; 42:1; 63:2; 140:13; Job. 42:5). Purity of heart cleanses the soul’s eyes so that God becomes visible (Philippians 1:9-11). Sin obscures the truth (John 3:19-20; Matthew 13:13-16; 1 Corinthians 2:14-15; Titus 1:15-16; 1 John 3:6). Evil and ignorance often come in a package.

Further, the Master promised that if we would keep our hearts pure we “shall see God” in the next world (Job 19:26-27; 1 Corinthians 13:12; Hebrews 12:14). “It is not yet made manifest” (1 John 3:2) in a complete sense how our eyes will be changed so that we can see a spirit-being, but “we know that . . . we shall see him even as he is.” His “servants shall serve him; and they shall see his face” (Revelation 22:3-4; cf. 5:13-14; 11:16-19; 2 Thessalonians 1:10).

Look for God today. You just may see Him.

Endnotes:
1 optanomai, from which we get “optometrist,” used 58 times in the New Testament.
2 Future indicative tense in the middle voice