God the Invisible

Sunday school last week centered around the scripture Colossians 1:15-23. The verse I want to focus on today is this one (verse 15):

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. (NRSV)

We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. (The Message)
What interests me about this is that someone in class (P) said that she didn't believe that God is invisible. Is God invisible? What does it mean that God is invisible?

I'm not sure what P meant when she said it, but I think I can guess. To her, God is not invisible. He has form, substance, a body, a visible essence that if we were with him, we could see. To us, though, here on Earth, he is not visible -- he is invisible. So a few questions:

What does it mean to us that God is invisible?

I like that the student book for Sunday school said, "To say that God is invisible is to proclaim that God is infinitely greater than all things, including "thrones or dominions or rulers or powers." (1:16)

Compare God to the idols of the time -- physical representations of God. We don't have that. I wonder if that makes it harder for us to understand God -- to get a handle on what he is like or not like. Of course, nothing we could create would come close at all to representing him -- he's bigger than anything we can imagine. So, even in our imagination, God is invisible. We can't see him because he is greater than what we can create.


Immortal, invisible, God only wise.
In light inaccessible, hid from our eyes,
Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of days,
Almighty, victorious, thy great name we praise.
How does Jesus make God, the invisible, visible to us?

To quote the student book, "Jesus, in person and in action, is the revelation of God. Jesus makes visible the one true God." John states the same in his first chapter, "No one has ever seen God; the only son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known." I also like John 1:14 (The Message): The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son.

Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light,
nor wanting, nor wasting, thou rulest in might;
thy justice like mountains high soaring above
thy clouds which are fountains of goodness and love.

God, who is visible in the kingdom
Is invisible to us.

He made us in His own image,
So we see his reflection when we look at each other.
But only in a mirror, dimly.

Jesus, the son,
Makes the invisible to be visible.
For he is the perfect reflection of the Father.

Notes: Hymn is obviously Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise (Words by Walter Chalmers Smith (1867) set to a Welsh melody). I love the line, "silent as light." Now here's a weird thing about me. I always find it interesting what hymn is opposite on the page from the one at which I am looking. Know what is opposite Immortal, Invisible?

Now Thank We all our God. Appropriate.