Tuesday, May 31, 2016

"Gender assignment at birth"

North Carolina passed a law requiring public restrooms or changing facilities "be designated for and only used by individuals based on their biological sex." The Justice Department, in turn, sued North Carolina, saying the law violates parts of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and amounts to sex discrimination. "Denying such access to transgender individuals, whose gender identity is different from their gender assignment at birth. . . violates federal law."   
               Vanita Gupta, Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice


Ms Gupta uses an interesting and delicate choice of words: "gender assignment at birth." 

I thought about that. Who would have made that original gender assignment?  

Well, God did.

"God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them." Genesis 1: 27  It wasn't arbitrary. It wasn't open to negotiation. And there were and are only two options.

You think you can improve on the design of the Lord of the Universe? Doesn't He know us better than we know ourselves? You mess with your "gender assignment," you're messing with the Infinite Intelligence who knows you best--and loves you most. 

Monday, May 30, 2016

Rainbow over Pearl Harbor

Rainbow over the USS Arizona (white saddleback monument in background), Pearl Harbor, May 21, 2016. Somewhere among my mother's things I have her slide of a rainbow over Hiroshima. If I could find it, I'd post them together, marking hope at the beginning and end of American participation in World War II.

Saturday, May 28, 2016

Put our money where his mouth is


"Among those nations like my own that own nuclear stockpiles, we must have the courage to escape the logic of fear and pursue a world without them." President Barack Obama in Hiroshima, May 27, 2016

A new study by the Federation of American Scientists has determined the Obama administration has reduced the nuclear stockpile at a far slower rate than any of his three immediate predecessors, including George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush. (Although numbers vary, the nine nuclear nations currently possess some 15,000 operational nuclear weapons. Of these, the United States and Russia possess 93% of them, about equally.)

In fact, despite Obama's call for an end to nuclear weapons, the United States is actually increasing them. He has committed to a $1 trillion upgrade to our nuclear arsenal over the next three decades. 

Why didn't he add, ". . . And our country will cancel our proposed trillion dollar upgrade and begin immediately to reduce our nuclear stockpile by 10% per year through the year 2026. We call on every nuclear nation to follow our example."

Good words--but empty. Just do it, Mr. Obama!

See http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/37110-in-hiroshima-obama-calls-for-world-without-nukes-contradicting-new-1-trillion-weapon-upgrade-plan

Thursday, May 26, 2016

What hibakusha want Obama to learn from Hiroshima


President Obama will be visiting my home town tomorow.  I grew up in Hiroshima.  Six years after the bomb the Atomic Energy Commission sent my dad, Dr. Earle Reynolds, to study the effects of radiation on the growth and development of 4,800 children who survived.  

Obama will tour Peace Memorial Park (Ground Zero).  Our family sat through more than one August 6th ceremony there, honoring the hibakusha (explosion-affected people) killed that day, 95% of them civilians, and those thousands killed by the bomb's radiation since then. 

In the Peace Park he will see the Children's Monument, surrounded by colorful paper crane leis.  At its top, a model of 12-year old Sadako Sasaki stands with arms stretched wide.  Sadako made the crane a worldwide symbol of peace.

For three years Dad studied children like Sadako--very likely Sadako herself. Sadako Sasaki did not develop radiation symptoms for ten years, after our family--my parents, brother Ted, myself, and three Hiroshima yachtsmen--left Japan on a yacht my dad designed and built, Phoenix of Hiroshima.  While we were sailing around the world for pleasure, Sadako was folding paper cranes in a desperate attempt to stay alive.  She died in 1957.

On May 1, 1958, we sailed into Honolulu, ready for the last leg of our circumnavigation back to Hiroshima. But between us and our goal was 390,000 square miles of the Pacific which the AEC had just declared off-limits to American citizens.  In it, they were conducting the Hardtack series of atmospheric nuclear tests. 

The 35 explosions would total 35.6 megatons, more than 2,373 Hiroshimas.

Dad was concerned about the additional radiation being released into the jet stream and ocean currents. But until we met the crew of the Golden Rule, a smaller yacht down the dock from us, he remained a scientist, not an activist. 

These four Quakers had just been intercepted by the Coast Guard. Captain Bigelow was arrested for attempting to sail into the nuclear test zone.  A subsequent attempt on June 4th led to the arrest and 100-day incarceration of the entire crew.

Inspired by their courage we took over their protest.  On July 2 we entered the forbidden zone.  A Coast Guard cutter pulled alongside and two men in white uniforms with side arms jumped aboard and put Dad under arrest.

Dad's trial in Honolulu, conviction, and appeal took two years.  When we were finally free to sail back to Hiroshima, we were amazed to be welcomed by hundreds of hibakusha.  They thanked us for giving their message to the world: NO MORE HIROSHIMAS! NO MORE NAGASAKIS!

In 1961, when the USSR resumed atmospheric testing, we sailed again. We took with us hundreds of letters and appeals from hibakusha.  The captain of a Coast Guard vessel off Nakhodka refused us entrance to their port--and refused the letters.

In 1962-64 my mother, Barbara Reynolds, took those letters and hibakusha themselves to every nuclear nation—twice.  They met with ambassadors, Congresspersons, United Nations delegates, doctors, teachers, schoolchildren, appealing for a nuclear-free world.  

Obama may not see the monuments behind the museum, monuments to foreigners who helped hibakusha recover.  One of them was my mother.  He may not see the World Friendship Center she founded nearby, a place for international visitors to stay, meet hibakusha, share cultures, beliefs and ways to avoid war.

But I hope Mr. Obama will see Hiroshima through the eyes of the hibakusha.  They do not care about the politics of nuclear war.  They lived through one.  They want the nuclear powers, including us, to stop talking about the need to get rid of nuclear weapons, stop waiting for others to take the lead, and just eliminate them. They don't want anyone, anywhere, to have to go through what they did.

Jessica Reynolds Renshaw, Long Beach
Author, To Russia with Love, published by Wilmington College Peace Resource Center, Wilmington, Ohio, 2010


Inline image 1 
Mum and me fasting at foot of Children’s Monument, Christmas Day, 1961, deciding what to do with hibakusha letters and appeals.

Inline image 2

Me, with scroll (1 of 3 in the world) showing words on the cenotaph at Ground Zero: “Rest in peace, for the error will never be repeated.”



Tuesday, May 10, 2016

More Sudoku

Overheard--oh, wait, I said it myself:

"Sudoku! Stop meowing! I put your food back in the fridge because you were through with it. You'd walked away! Okay, I'll get it out again but I'll bet you a dollar you won't even sniff it."

Pause.

"Jerry, I just lost a dollar to a cat."

Monday, May 9, 2016

Introducing Sudoku



She's not allowed on the bed at night, although if I'm in it and Jerry isn't, she knows I make an exception.

Friday morning
As Jerry flings aside the covers on one side of me, the cat is marching up the bed to greet me on the other side. She has it all choreographed.

Monday morning
Movement to my right. Covers flipping toward me, the mattress releasing its weight. 

I turn away to snuggle deeper into the warmth which remains and open my eyes--into a mirroring pair of eyes fixed on mine. 

A soft paw extends tentatively toward me, hoping for my reciprocal paw to work its way from under the flannel sheets and curry her mottled pelt.

Tuesday morning

When Jerry moves out of bed I don't move. I don't open my eyes. I feel the approaching steps tug the covers, know when they stop. We both wait, the cat and I. 


Soft pokes. 

I don't respond. 

She uses her words. 

Nothing. 

Then her tongue.

I laugh, roll over, and scrub her cheeks. 

                                                         ---

Sunday, May 8, 2016

Jerry's perspective

On the wall over our table at the Black Bear Diner was a painting of a campfire in a forest. Over the flame was a cast-iron skillet holding two eggs, sunny-side up, and the only observer was a bear.

"Poor bear," I told Jerry. "If he tries to eat the eggs in the pan he'll burn his paws.
How will he have breakfast?"

Jerry: "Wait till the hunters come back and eat them instead?" 

                                                               

Offsetting our wants with their needs (their needs with our wants?)

Offset: something that serves to counterbalance or to compensate for something else.

On my birthday I was of two minds about going to Black Bear Diner for my free breakfast. I knew that with Jerry buying his own breakfast and tipping on both of them, plus paying tax, my "free" meal could cost about $20. In light of the starving people in the world I thought that a misplaced use of our money.

So when I decided to go anyway I prayed for the Lord to let us know of some legitimate ministry for the hungry to which we could contribute $20.

We got into the car and when Jerry started the engine the radio came on to our favorite Christian station--a station just announcing a fund-raising drive for Food for the Poor. All I had to do to assuage my conscience was to call in as we drove and make a donation.

So I did.


Thursday, May 5, 2016

May 5, 2016: National Day of Prayer

Join us in praying:

Alex Kendrick's Prayer for America

Our Father in heaven, we come before You today, acknowledging You as our Creator. You are the God of Abraham, Jacob, and Isaac, the One who established Your chosen people and through whom You gave Your Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ. You established the promised land of Israel and demonstrated time and time again that if Your people sought You, worshipped You, and obeyed You, that You would bless them with guidance, provision, and protection. But that if they turned away, then You would remove Your hand and allow judgment.

Lord, we also acknowledge that just as Israel was dedicated to You at it’s founding, that another country years later would also seek Your blessing and dedicate themselves and their land to You. The first president of these United States of America, on the day of his inauguration sought Your hand, Your guidance, and Your blessing on our new country, and the people prayed and celebrated in agreement.

In the following years, Lord, You did more for us than we deserved. You blessed us with military strength, economic strength, with inventions, medical discoveries, academic achievement and national prosperity. You lifted us up to lead the world as we proclaimed that our blessings came from You and that “In God We Trust”. Our constitution acknowledges You as our Creator and our founding fathers noted that our people should never be led without Your Word.

But as You blessed us, we eventually became prideful in our success, believing that it was also by our own hands that our nation was elevated, and that You owed us blessings and protection. In time a generation rose that became calloused toward You, Oh God, and we chose our own prideful logic above Your truth, abandoning You in our schools and ignoring You in our courts. Yet, You showed patience and mercy, and called out “Return to Me, America. Return to Me.”

But instead we embraced our sin, claiming we were Lord over ourselves. We abandoned You by giving credit to the creation of our world to astronomical chance, and began throwing out Your moral boundaries for our selfish pleasure. We oversaturated our hearts and minds on immoral entertainment until our conscience was seared, and began shedding the innocent blood of our unborn children who were an inconvenience to our lives. Yet You kept calling, “Repent, America. Repent and return to Me!”

But we responded that, “We’ve done no wrong.” And we justified our sin as our right and liberty. We chased money, physical pleasure, and the belief that we are entitled to what we do not deserve. And now we stand on the precipice of redefining what You have already called “sacred” for a definition of our own.

Lord, what You call wicked, we now call good. And we’ve now begun persecuting those that proclaim Your truth. You’ve sent warnings, allowing breaches in our security, and instability in our economy. You’ve allowed drought to begin touching our land, and civil unrest in our cities.

Lord, even the people who claim to still acknowledge You have become apathetic and complacent in our comfort. Our worship has been lukewarm and our prayers passionless. We shake our heads in shame as our nation weakens around us, instead of repenting of our apathy and inaction. Where are the people of God? Where are those that still cry out to You with broken and contrite hearts?

Lord, we deserve judgment. We deserve Your wrath, for we have sinned and sinned greatly. And we know that Your judgment starts in the house of God. Our righteousness is as filthy rags, and our hypocrisy as a cancer in our land. But we cry out to You, Lord! We have nowhere else to look but You! There is no other answer. Man cannot redeem us. Remember Your mercy! Remember Your compassion!  Break our hearts, Oh, God! Help us to love what You love, and to hate what You hate. Give us the courage to call sin what it is, and to define our lives by Your truth. Remind us of Your love for us, and call us to repentance. May every heart that knows You as Lord seek You this day! May we grieve over our sin this day; that You might show us mercy and forgiveness.

Lord, for those that heed Your words, and repent with open hearts, restore us to You. And unify those that love You. Raise up a generation that seeks You and worships You with their whole heart. Raise up a generation that is not ashamed of the gospel, and that hates to be lukewarm. Grant them faith, love, and courage to live according to Your Word, and to pray with power and to act with conviction.  Raise up leaders, Lord, who will not compromise when under pressure, or abandon You for the approval of men. Raise them up, Lord, that they may call upon Your name, and confess Jesus Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords.

Break up the hard soil in our hearts, Lord, that You may take joy in our worship of You, and bless us again. Call us to holiness, that we would once again be the light of the world and draw all men to You. Awaken us, Lord! Rekindle our fire, and stir our hearts. We confess our sins, and we seek Your face.  Forgive us, Lord God, that we can again proclaim, “Great is Thy Faithfulness”.

We ask for Your forgiveness and cleansing. We pray against those who reject Your truth. Turn their hearts to You or confound their logic. But don’t let wickedness take our land. Don’t let them succeed. Stand in their way, Lord. For America is Yours! And like Israel, may she remain undivided and in Your care. Keep our bond strong with Israel, Lord, and our leaders loyal. Or remove them from office. May Your kingdom come and Your will be done. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, Amen.

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Seeking His Face - Enough (Part 4)

ENOUGH

Seek My face, You wrote me.
My heart says, Your face, Lord, do I seek--
but how?
I can't visualize faces, 
even one I've just seen
on our waitress or bank clerk.
Even my husband's, 
when he is out of the room.
Others can do that.
I can't.

Your face, Lord, do I seek,
I have been seeking.
But why?
I expect You want me to see
Your kind eyes penetrating mine, 
beaming into Mine
Your compassion.
It's kind of You to offer, Lord,
but I don't need to see Your face
to know You love me.

Your face, Lord, do I seek--
kind of--because You command me to.
But without expectation.
Why would You want to look at me?
Spill that tender gaze on someone else
Don't waste Your attention on me.
They're hurting more. They matter more.
It's all right.
Turn away, Lord. Hurry to them. They need you!
I can wait.

I am not seeking Your face right now, 
not consciously. 
I'm reading a book or at the computer
or lying in bed.
I am seeing something, 
a piece of something,
in my imagination.
What is it?
The upper right corner of a scene.
Part of a face. One eye.
The left eye of a man.
He is not looking at me
but straight ahead
at something above both of us
to my left.

An eyebrow, part of a cheekbone,
a suggestion of jaw, 
a round of shoulder.
A man dark with sun and sweat.
In that one eye
such agony.
And something else: a longing for an end.
Even without seeing 
where the taut tendons lead,
I know.
This is You, isn't it?
Your face. Part of Your face.
Not the part, the frontal view, I expected.
Profile.

Speechless,
looking across my view,
You let me see Your love for me.
Not shiny feeling 
but birth-giving death.
Not Your love toward me 
but Your love on my behalf.
As evidence of that love
drips into those eyes,
runs from Your nose and chin,
You take on my enemy,
no holds barred--
with Your hands tied.

Motionless,
You rip open the lion's mouth,
wresting me from his jaws
and out from under his claws.
Bringing me home.
You show me 
all the love I can bear.
Enough to last--
and cherish--
for a lifetime.


Photo by KARIN, Jan/2002, #12/20 (portion)

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Seeking His Face and Prosopagnosia (Part 3)



Jerry and I took my brother Tim out of his nursing home to see the movie Risen. One of Tim's areas of interest is "What happened to the body of Jesus?" and that movie addresses the issue.

When it was over I asked Tim what he thought of it. He said, "It was good but I had trouble following it because I couldn't tell any of the men apart. They all had beards." I had the same problem. All twelve disciples--and Jesus Himself--looked alike to me.

"It's called prosopagnosia," Tim said. "From the same root as 'agnostic.'" (He used to teach Greek and Latin.) "We don't know people's faces." To misquote Kipling, "I am the Cat who walks by himself, and all faces are alike to me." Rudyard Kipling, "The Cat that walked by Himself"


I knew I had trouble recognizing faces but I didn't know it had a name! Turns out Tim and I aren't the only ones with this embarrassing condition. Our brother Ted does, although he says he has the same problem recognizing "automobiles and other faceless appliances." As far as he's concerned, "There are only about twenty faces out there and then they begin to recycle. Forget movie celebrities.  Actors have only about three different faces, and actresses two -- Audrey Hepburn, and all the others. Anyway, faces don't become faces until they start moving; then they reveal themselves."

Prosopagnosia (lit. face ignorance) "is a disability that complicates everything from following a movie plot to picking a perp out of a lineup," according to the article "Do I Know You?" (Ted says, "Forget police lineups. I'd be like 'That's him, the policeman over there! He was fat and wearing the same suit!')


I can identify with that. At a bank or in a restaurant if the person who has been serving me leaves for a minute, I can't tell which one it was. Male or female, yes. Tall or short? Probably. Ethnicity? Possibly. That's about it. 

I recently spent an entire weekend with a new friend at the women's retreat--we shared a bed, for goodness' sake!--and at church the following week I saw a woman I thought might be her but I wasn't sure enough to go over and greet her by name. I'm like my mother. I don't remember faces (or names, either, many times) but I remember character qualities--friendly, aloof, fun. I remember people's hearts.

Prosopagnosia is socially isolating--and surprisingly common, says the article quoted above. Something like 1 in 50 people have some degree of it. "While mild prosopagnosics can train themselves to memorize a limited number of faces, others grapple with identifying family members and, in extreme cases, their own face. Gaylen Howard, 40, a homemaker in Boulder, Colo., says that when she's standing in front of a mirror in a crowded restroom, she makes a funny face so that, as she puts it, 'I can tell which one is me.'

"Most prosopagnosics learn to cope early on. They distinguish people based on cues like hairstyle, voice, gait or body shape. They avoid places where they could unexpectedly run into someone they know. They pretend to be lost in thought while walking down the street. They act friendly to everyone--or to no one. In short, they become expert at masking their dysfunction." 

So when it comes to seeking God's face, I am at a disadvantage. I love the portrait of Jesus by Akiane. I am sure He must look just like that picture. But when I am not actually looking at it I can only remember that the face is sun-browned, the eyes blue, piercing but kind. 

I wrote a poem recently about my difficulty in seeking the face of God. (To be continued.) 


Personal experience articles:

Monday, May 2, 2016

Seeking His Face (Part 2)


In the Old Testament (the Hebrew Scriptures) God, who is spirit, is said to have a face. Like our faces, God's face reveals His emotions and heart. When He is pleased with His people He faces them: "For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, and His ears attend to their prayer-- 1 Peter 3:12a.


When He isn't pleased with them, He hides His face from them: "Then they will cry out to the Lord, but He will not answer them. Instead, He will hide His face from them at that time because they have practiced evil deeds"  Micah 3:4.

When they continue in defiance and disobedience, He turns His face against them: "But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil" 1 Peter 3:12b.
"I will also set My face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given some of his offspring to Molech, so as to defile My sanctuary and to profane My holy name" Leviticus 20:3.

(Note that God turns His face against those who give their offspring as human sacrifices to Molech, the fire-god of the Ammonites. Of the seven things God hates, listed in Proverbs 6:16-19, one is "hands that shed innocent blood." How will we escape the judgment for sacrificing our unborn as human sacrifices--3,700 times a day!)


Exodus 33:20 says that no one can see God's face and live. The Lord spoke to Moses face to face "just as a man speaks to his friend" Exodus 33:11--and Moses lived. Apparently speaking face to face did not involve seeing God's face. It was only after he had been speaking with God face-to-face (on a regular basis?) that Moses asked God to show him His glory--and God's answer indicated that seeing His glory would involve seeing His face. He said Moses would not survive that:  "I will make My goodness pass before you and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. . .[But] you cannot see My face, for no man shall see Me, and live." 

So He put Moses in a "cleft of a rock" and protected Moses with His hand while He passed by. Moses saw only God's "back" Exodus 33:17-23. In fact, Moses carried down from the mountain the reflection of God's brilliance in "the skin of his face" to such a degree that the people were afraid to come near him Exodus 34:29-35.

(In Genesis 32:30 Jacob claimed to have seen God and survived. Did he really see God? The Bible does not say whether he did or not.) 
 
Is seeking the face of God the same as seeing it? To see the face of God is a death sentence, yet in five OT passages God invites us--commands us?--to seek His face: 


Glory in His holy name;
Let the heart of those who seek the Lord be glad.
Seek the Lord and His strength;
Seek His face continually.
Remember His wonderful deeds which He has done,
His marvels and the judgments from His mouth,
 



"If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place."  2 Chronicles 7:13-15 NASB


When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You, “Your face, O Lord, I shall seek.” Psalm 27:8 NASB

Seek the Lord and His strength; Seek His face continually. Psalm 105:4

I will go away and return to My place Until they acknowledge their guilt and seek My face; In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.  Hosea 5:15



How do we do that? How do we seek God's face? 

Especially how do we seek God's face if we are among the 2.5% of the world's population who suffer from prosopagnosia, the inability to recognize faces or hold a face in our memory, even one we have just seen or one we know well? (To be continued)



John Piper, What does it mean to "Seek the Lord?" http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/what-does-it-mean-to-seek-the-lord

Kathy Thomas, Seeking His Face http://praise.com/devotions/seeking-his-face

Lori Ransom, Seek His Face, Not His Hand  http://www.holyisthelamb.com/viewnugget.php?id=37

To Seek God's Face - BibleFocus.net http://biblefocus.net/living-word/seek-his-face/index.html

http://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/FACE-OF-GOD

http://biblehub.com/topical/m/MOLECH.htm




  

Sunday, May 1, 2016

Seeking His Face (Part 1)


In the beginning, God--. 

God? What does that mean?

Merriam-Webster tells us that "god" refers to  "a spirit or being that has great power, strength, knowledge, etc., and that can affect nature and the lives of people : one of various spirits or beings worshiped in some religions." 

But the God of the Bible seems to be more than just a powerful spirit who can affect nature and the lives of people. The word seems to be a proper name, describing a conscious, animate Being. This god can do more than affect things. This god has brought into being everything that exists--out of nothing.

First, the Bible says, there was only this God and then God created everything else. On His part, that implies personality, purpose, and power. He (as opposed to "It," not "her") animated some of those objects He created--grasses, robins, antelopes, groupers, giraffes--gave them life and installed in them some sort of self-replicating mechanism. Cows always birth calves. Chimps never morph into men (no matter how much time is allowed).

His masterpiece is the male and female unit he named "Adam" (man), the first made from dust into flesh and the second made from the flesh of the first. He designed them with some of His own qualities, so they could know Hm and be in relationship with Him. He made them to preserve and rule over the rest of His creation in the same way He rules over them, keeping them safe, helping them flourish and reach their highest potential. Reflecting His love for them, Adam and Eve replicated themselves in response to His mandate to "fill the earth."

Of the universe of beings God made, man and woman alone were given freedom to choose to be grateful and love Him back--or to turn their back on perfect love.

Throughout the Old Testament, through His qualities, through what this Being does and says, we gradually see Him as eternal, infinite, omnipotent, omniscient, holy, just, merciful, One who is both separate from and sovereign over His universe and yet intimately connected with and concerned for it. He is presented as the only true god, the only god worthy of worship.


But the Old Testament never defines this Being. We understand who He is not through theological description but primarily through what He does and says. Our perceptions of Him are formed by simile and metaphor: He is "a consuming fire, a jealous God," "a shield," "a strong tower," "a shepherd." And finally we know Him by Self-revelation: "I am the 'I am.'" The forever self-existent One.

The Scriptures say He is "spirit" yet there are anthropomorphic references to body parts of God and (what we consider) human emotions:

"By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host" Psalm 33:6. With His hands He shapes a man and with His mouth He breathes life into him. From the living man he sculpts a woman. He stretches out His hand in blessing or in judgment. "The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry." Psalm 34:15 He has a strong right arm, which He stretches out over nations in judgment and which He bares to fight for and protect those who love Him. Underneath His people are the "everlasting arms" of His protection. He watches over them "with His eye upon them."


"In several places in the Bible, God is described as having the physical attributes of man. He “sets [his] face” against evil (Leviticus 20:6); the Lord will make “His face” to shine on you (Numbers 6:25); He “stretched out his hand” (Exodus 7:5; Isaiah 23:11), and God scattered enemies with His strong arm (Psalm 89:10). He “stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth” (Psalm 113:6). He “keeps his eye” on the land (Deuteronomy 11:12), the “eyes of the Lord” are on the righteous (Psalm 34:15), and the earth is His “footstool” (Isaiah 66:1). Do all these verses mean that God literally has eyes, a face, hands and feet? Not necessarily. God is spirit, not flesh and blood, but because we are not spirit, these anthropomorphisms help us to understand God’s nature and actions." http://www.gotquestions.org/anthropomorphism.html

He even has "wings" and "feathers." "He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge" Psalm 91:4.

These anatomical features must be figurative. "The Psalms refer repeatedly to the eyes of God, but Psalm 94:9 remarks that the God who made the eye is not limited to lesser faculties than the creatures He made." 



In the New Testament, God will become flesh and have literal body parts. Jesus fulfills prophecy when he says, "A body you have prepared for me, O Lord. . . I am come to do Your will, O God" Hebrews chapter 10, verses 5-10.  Jesus is "the fullness of God in a human body" Colossians chapter 2, verse 9. He could say (and did, to Philip), "He who has seen Me has seen the Father." Gospel of John chapter 14, verse 9 As a man Jesus was a certain height and weight, had hair, eyes, and skin of a certain color. He was born a baby and died a man. (His resurrection body, with all the recognizable features of the physical one, transcended the physical one and was the first fruit of a new kind of life.)

Under the old covenant, we were not to make, draw or sculpt God--because those representations, if only by the very fact of their being bound by time and space, were false, and their makers would be worshiping something other than the true God.

But God Himself in His son Jesus encapsulated His God-ness in a tangible representation of Himself fused inextricably "in the likeness of men."


Afterwards, remembering His time among them, His disciples would say of Jesus' deity and humanity, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled--" He had vocal chords which could carry his voice across valley and sea. He had teeth, muscles to help him swallow, a digestive system. He had a lap children could climb into. He was stirred to anger and to grief. His body wearied and required sleep. He had hands which could not only bless and heal but which could be penetrated with spikes, flesh which could bleed and die.

And He had a face. (To be continued)


Biblical anthropomorphisms
 
How does the Bible use anthropomorphism to talk about God?

God is

20 Bible Facts About God