These days, those of us in nations with predominantly Christian, Muslim, and/or Jewish populations are accustomed to thinking of God as an unknowable force, beyond our small human minds - something so powerful and incredible you can only really appreciate it once you have passed away and thus ascended to a higher plane of understanding. Depictions of God as a beardy guy in the sky are typically seen as a little immature (unless Michaelangelo or someone else with great talent painted them). They are at the least understood to be an interpretation of God and not the fullness of whatever He is.
However, this is not how gods are seen everywhere, and not even how gods were always depicted in the places that now imagine a deity too powerful to really depict. There have been all sorts of gods throughout human history (though if you asked the gods themselves, they would probably say they predate human history by a long time) and many of them have taken on forms that were considerably more accessible, and that often represented something about that God's interests, character, powers, and even weaknesses. This includes many animal gods, who appear from Egyptian to Norse to Indian to Native American theologies. It's time to find out which member of this incredibly diverse pantheon is watching out for you!
