Faces

John Scalzi brought the song "One of Us" (as recorded by Joan Osbourne) to mind this morning. Yes, I know many people find it annoying, trite, and/or stupid. I like it. Didn't so much at first, but it got under my skin. (I've never been accused of having impeccable musical taste.)

I like it for one of the reasons Scalzi points out - it asks a question in a way that might make the listener think about the topic in a different way.

My favorite bit, the one I think is the reason I really started liking the song, is "if God had a face, what would it look like." I think that who one is, how one lives one's life, what one creates, and what one leaves behind are far more important than what one looks like. And a person creations and reputation/legacy is far more important to recognize than a picture of the person. It also tells you a lot more about someone. So I feel that, in a way, God does have a face. It is in the beauty around us. In my admittedly weird and contradictory belief system, God created the universe and is created by us and the rest of the universe. Therefore, it is his face or at least far more important indicator of who he is than any corporeal visage he might have or we perceive. All parents thinks their child has the face of an angel (at least when asleep); I think we all have the face of God. (There are some implications to this that I try not to dwell on.)

That verse is part of what spurred me to verbalize (not quite the right word, synthesize?) that belief. I heard it and thought "but God doesn't have a face, he doesn't have any kind of body..." and ran with it.

One or two of the comments on Whatever mention the God was one of us. But does any church really teach that the Christ was just like you and me? No, they teach that Jesus was like you and me, only perfect. I've always felt that the song referred more to the God-the-Father persona anyway, not God-the-Son. The authoritative rule giver, God.