Joe, thanks for the links. The first one will forever be my visual image of Jesus too. It's been hanging in my parent's dining room all my life. I bet you'd find it in 99% of Catholic homes! And I do still love it ...

This is a British medical artist's interpretation of what a 1st Century CE Semitic man living at the time of Jesus would have looked like. Seems like a darker-skinned wooly-haired peasant Jesus is not too far off then, although that image certainly doesn't 'resonate' at all with me!

What a paranoid article at that last link, Joe!   How does the yin-yang symbol (of balance), or a feather hanging from a staff indicate "witchcraft"??? Seems to me it infers a comfortingly "multicultural" Jesus - one who's 'Big Enough' to welcome those who love Eastern philosophy, traditional shamanism, and yes even Wicca or "Witchcraft".

WHy would Jesus have a problem with feathers anyway? "Consider the birds of the field. They do not sew or spin and yet Solomon in all his glory was not bedecked in such finery" (sorry, I'm paraphrasing cuz I'm too lazy to look up the direct quote right now ...)

LH, I love your description of a spiritual Being. Thanks for sharing your awesome experience here. What I said about how Jesus looks now is NOT a 'notion'. I'll tell you about it sometime ok?

Mike, thank you very much for the confirmation and many blessings to you too!

daylia