Let's just get straight to it: if God is Spirit, why do we keep seeing Him painted on murals and stained glass like He's a white man from Sweden?
Even Jesus - born in the Middle East, surrounded by Hebrew culture, likely walking dusty roads with dark skin and coarse hair - somehow ended up looking like a surfer from California in our Western churches.
Let's be clear: this ain't about reverse racism. It's about truth.
Revelation 1:14-15 clearly describes Jesus:
"The hair on his head was white like wool… his feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace."
Wool-like hair. Feet like burnished bronze. That's thick, coarse hair. That's deep brown skin. That sounds familiar, doesn't it?
And yet... centuries of art, colonization, and religious conquest painted Him differently. Why?
Because image equals power.
Because if you can control how people see God, you can control how they see themselves.
Imagine This:
A little Black boy goes to Sunday school and sees a white Jesus on the wall, sitting on a throne.
He looks up. Then he looks at himself.
Does God look like me?
If he doesn't, can I really be made in His image?
And that's the danger. Not because God has skin, but because we put Him in one.
God isn't white. God isn't Black. God isn't brown, yellow, or beige.
God is Spirit (John 4:24). But when He chose to show up on earth, He came as Jesus - a brown-skinned man from Nazareth, the "hood" of Israel.
So if we're going to honor Him... let's honor all of Him. That includes the side that doesn't fit on a Hallmark card.
Journal This:
How have images of God shaped the way you see yourself?
Have you ever felt left out of the image of holiness?
What would change if you saw yourself as sacred too?