The appearance of the likeness of the glory
For I know that the Lord is great;
Our Lord is above all gods. Psalm 135:5
Read Ezekiel 1:22—28
Yes, if I were to picture God — no wonder we are told to make no image of God — it would be in language like this: ‘something like a dome,’ ‘like a throne,’ ‘in appearance like sapphire,’ ‘something that seemed like a human form,’ ‘what appeared like,’ ‘like gleaming amber,’ ‘like fire enclosed all around,’ ‘looked like fire,’ ‘splendour all around,’ ‘the appearance of the splendour all around.’ It would all be like, as if, as, likeness, something like, glory. I would be lost not simply for words, but for vision, for appearance. God is God, and has to be beyond me. It is enough that I can capture from the prophet splendour, splendour all around. Yet at the end of all that cannot be described something utterly reportable happens. The prophet hears God speak directly to him.
Prayer
Almighty God, before you I can only bow and say, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.’[1] I cannot describe you or contain you, measure you or hold you, yet you have spoken very clearly to me. You call me by name. You call me your own. You place your ways within me. I am yours.
[1] Isaiah 6:3