When we try to imagine God, so often we think of some sort of superhuman. That, if God exists, He must be like us but stronger, faster and invincible. Maybe like some sort of Father Christmas or Father Time, old, bearded and benevolent. Or like Zeus, angry and vengeful like a warrior.
However, the Bible tells us that God is not human. We are made in His image – we are like Him in some aspects – and He revealed Himself to us as the man Jesus, but God the Father is not a man, He is a spirit (John 4:24). God does call Himself in the Bible a Father and there is mention of His hands and eyes and hears. But the Bible also uses animal imagery to try to describe God, it talks about God’s wings and Jesus is compared to both a lion and a lamb. And God also uses inanimate things to convey information about His attributes, like God being a pillar of fire and the cloud that the Israelites saw in the wilderness.
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One Sunday afternoon my husband, myself, our three children and the dog were all on our queen-size bed and Adrian was rough-housing with the kids and they were all screaming and rolling about fighting and tickling. I was sitting propped up against the headboard and Carrie – the dachshund – became so upset with the noise and mayhem that she crawled behind me between me and the headboard. On one side of me you could just see her tail and on the other her nose.
The other day my husband was cutting up beef to make jerky and Carrie, our little sausage dog was dancing around the kitchen begging for scraps.