“So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” Genesis 1:27 (NLT).

People are always talking about how we are created in the image of God, but how do we know what that image of God is? What is Christ’s true identity?

Through the ages humans have depicted Christ in many different ways. He is most commonly recognized as a Mediterranean-looking man with a beard and a handsome face. Other times his is drawn as a more European-looking man with pale skin and feminine features.

The painters of the ages painted Jesus to look like themselves so they could relate to him better and be more comfortable with a person who looked just like them—but God is all of these people. He is the woman from Indonesia, the boy from Pakistan, the man from Belgium.

Let us strip the face that we want to see, the face that is most familiar and comfortable to us. Instead, let us look to Christ as a man with many faces. The face of kindness and love and hope—the face that gave everything for us— his death on the cross for the sins we commit every day without even thinking of how they hurt our Heavenly Father. A face for all people, all races, and for all of eternity.