I need some help understanding this. During Bible study today, our teacher mentioned something about how Saints who’ve had visions of Jesus saw Him with puncture wounds left from His crucifixion. This made me think of various descriptions visionaries have used to describe the physical characteristics of Jesus and Mary.
Why the differences? Some say He’s dark haired, some have said He’s fair haired. Brown eyes, blue eyes?
I think God condescends to our weaknesses and biases. We all perceive the world and even have an image of God which is modified by our cultural background.
I’ve often mentioned the night my father died, he appeared in my room. I won’t go too much into the details at this point, but when he first materialised, he did so near the bedroom door.
Now there’s no reason for a “spirit” to materialise near a door, since it can do so anywhere. He could have used the ceiling for all the difference it would have made to him. But his appearing in my room the way he did was a fairly stressful incident for me, and totally unexpected.
I didn’t think about it at the time, but later I realsed the fact he materialised near the door in particular was a bit of psychological protection for me. When someone comes into a room, we expect them to do so via the door. So to make the thing just that little bit less nerve wracking, he (or God made him) materialsed near the door.
Even when Christ appeared to Mary at the tomb, the two on the way to Emmaus, the other apostles, they were always either given some form of warning or psychological protection (eg. the angels in the tomb, Christ appearing as a gardener in a garden for Mary, walking and talking with the two disciples on the way to Emmaus, ensuring there were a number of disciples together in the room, catching them in a group at their old trade of fishing. At no time did He suddenly appear and go “Boo! Ha! Gotcha!”. He considered their frame of mind.
So when he appears to the saints in visions - He’s going to take into account their prior perceptions and cultural biases.
That’s how I see it.
