To begin with, I am neither a minister nor a priest. I bring a totally non-religious and unbiased approach to the subject. I am a writer, designer, musician, and observer of the world. As an artist and student of art history, I have traveled the world to some of the finest museums available on this planet. From the Vatican to the Louvre, to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. and the New York Museum of Art, I've had the opportunity to view the best art history has to offer. The images of Christ and various versions of God often dominate the displays. Going back to Gothic times at the very birth of Christianity, we get a glimpse of how the new movement conceived that their God must have appeared. In addition, the Islamic community has their own take on Mohamed and the Eastern perspective. Add to that, the Oriental depiction of Buddha and you have far-ranging opinions of God's image. So who is right?

Let's state the obvious. We have not seen God. Jesus, who proclaimed to be his son, never gave us or his disciples a literal description of his father. As far as we know, he (or she) has never been here and shown himself to us. Sure, we've had the likes of George Burns and more recently Morgan Freeman presenting a more satirical portrayal of God, but that's Hollywood for you. No, we are left to our own imagination. The most famous painting of God exists in the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel where Michelangelo chose to show his mighty visage with flowing mane and white beard, reaching out to touch Adam and thus send a spark of life into the first human. It's a stirring, emotional vision without any reference. It's merely one man's interpretation. As I watched the earliest attempts at drawing God, it became obvious that God was a man. He was Jesus to the Christians. Although, whenever someone tried to go beyond that criteria, they still positioned another man or figure in the sky above the people. Often there was a shaft of light emanating from the God-like figure amongst a stormy scene.

So God is mostly human in post-Christian depictions. Rarely do you see an animal representing God, unless you include all of Mythology dating back to 5000 BC. The ancient Egyptians would show parts of many animals including eagles, lions, and serpents. The Romans, Greeks, and Norsemen had every type of man-animal, depending on the type of God they were representing. They invariably controlled nature and therefore related back to the specific area within their control. These figures are also found in museums world-wide, more likely immortalized in wall-painting and sculptures. It was the Christians that decided, along with the Bible, that God would be created in man's image. But there are other ways to look at God.

If we perceive God as a higher authority or power that has the ability to create everything we encounter, couldn't God look like a very complex molecule? Or perhaps the computer-techs would equate God to a massive bit of encoding. We might also consider a never-ending mathematical formula that is elegant and perplexing in it's symmetry. Look up at the heavens, above the Artic circle. The Aura Borealis with it's mercurial and ephemeral gaseous waves might be God's way of showing a small piece of him or herself. Sunsets, lightening, or the sight of a baby as it takes it's first breath could all be what God looks like. We tend to give God a gender, but is that really fair? A God that could be the designer of all the universe would be more of a thing or what, than a "who." It would be a driving force and have no human attributes. Remember, it also was responsible for all alien civilizations that we have yet to encounter, along with the tiniest of microbes on our own planet. Couldn't it be a huge bacteria that permeates everything? Or something unimaginably small that rides in the air?

I know that these concepts are harder to visualize, but they are far more probable than a human or animal-like approximation. If God is truly everywhere, than it must be invisible and perhaps even existing in another dimension we will never see. I understand that many near-death experiences include a bright light and perhaps a peek at long-dead relatives or friend. That may explain that God does live in another plane of existence and the light is merely a portal into the next adventure that awaits us. But, for now, we can only contemplate the face of God and dream about our life to come. I, for one, think that God has already shown itself in the wonders of our daily lives and we only have to open our eyes and soak up the miracle of life to see it.