God sees
This year, I started reading the Bible in chronological order using the You Version Bible app. I’m reading it with my friend, Graci, in Idaho, and the two of us are having a great time discovering new truths and facts about the Bible, about the stories, and about God. Well, maybe not new, but more like we are actually thinking about things we never thought about before or just forgot about.
One thing, recently, that came to my mind was how we really are made in God’s image. I mean, we all wonder what God looks like. We know Jesus came in human form, and He looked like us. In Genesis 1:26, God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness…” None of us can really imagine what our mighty God looks like, but we can be sure that He experiences all five of the senses He gave us.
God sees. He sees color and pays attention to detail. He puts blue in the sky, green in the grass, ocean blues in the seas, oranges, pinks, and yellows in the sunrise and sunset. Back in Exodus, He even paid attention to minor details when the curtains were to be made for the tabernacle. “For the entrance to the courtyard, provide a curtain twenty cubits long of blue, purple, and scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen-the work of an embroiderer-with four posts and four bases.” Exodus 27:16. For the priests garments, He said, “Have them use gold, and blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and fine linen.” Exodus 28:5. What detail!
God loves wonderful aromas. Exodus 29:18 says, “Then burn the entire ram on the altar. It is a pleasing aroma, a food offering presented to the Lord.” Next He says, “From the basket of bread made without yeast, which is before the Lord, take one round loaf, one thick loaf with olive oil mixed in, and one thin loaf. Put all these in the hands of Aaron and his sons and have them wave them before the Lord as a wave offering. Then take them from their hands and burn them on the altar along with the burnt offering for a pleasing aroma to the Lord, a food offering presented to the Lord.” Exodus 29:23-25. Song of Songs 2:13a says, “The fig tree forms it’s early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.”
God can taste
It just hit me that perhaps God eats food. I mean, why didn’t this occur to me before now? He made us in His image, and we eat food. He loves the aroma of a well-cooked offering and of bread. In Luke 13:29, it says, “People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God.” Of course, the bread of God is probably quite different from what we’re used to. John 6:33 says, “For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” Jesus ate meals with His disciples. He fed the people who followed Him many times, sometimes with just a few fishes and a few loaves of bread. I’m sure God doesn’t require anything, but I do wonder if He enjoys a good meal?
God hears
God hears. Psalms 66:8 says, “Praise our God, all peoples, let the sound of His praise be heard.” God loves to hear our voices lifted in worship of Him. Not only does God hear sound, but He also listens to us and answers us. God was going to destroy the Israelites after bringing them out of Egypt. Moses had climbed Mt. Sinai to talk with God for 40 days and nights. God wrote the Ten Commandments at this time. He saw and heard the Israelites build and worship a false god, a man made gold calf. His anger burned toward them. He was going to destroy them. Exodus 32:11-14 says, “But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God. ‘Lord,’ he said, ‘why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth?’ Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’ Then the Lord relented and did not bring on His people the disaster he had threatened.”
God bestows touch
Touch is referred to in the Bible many times. Early, in Genesis 3:3, it says, “…but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” Hebrews 11:28 describes how the destroyer passed over the firstborn of the Israelite children in Egypt, “By faith He kept the Passover and the application of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.” Jesus healed and blessed people through a simple touch. Mark 10:13a says, “People were bringing little children to Jesus for Him to place His hands on them…” Luke 6:19 says, “…and the people all tried to touch Him, because power was coming from Him and healing them all.”
God feels
We are created in His image. We see, smell, hear, taste, touch…and we also feel. He’s instilled in us the ability to love, because He first loved us. We can’t quite grasp how much He loves us, because it’s unfathomable. His love for us is so great, it’s unconditional, and it’s undeserved…but there it is. I try to imagine why, and then I think of how I love my daughter. She could commit the worst sin against me, and I’d still love her. I’d die for her. That’s what God did for you and for me. That’s how much He loves us. We are precious to Him. It is an honor to be made in His image. It is an honor to be loved by Almighty God.
