The Creator who sees people
God exists before and apart from the world he made. Genesis opens with God creating everything, while Psalm 90 speaks of him as God before the mountains and the earth existed (Genesis 1:1, KJV; Psalm 90:2, KJV). So God is not a powerful part of nature. Nature belongs to him.
Yet he is not remote. David says that God searches him, knows him, and is aware of the paths he takes (Psalm 139:1-3, KJV). The Bible’s God notices individual lives, including the parts of us that other people may never see.
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Holy, merciful and just
When God made himself known to Moses at Sinai, he described himself as compassionate, gracious, patient, rich in goodness and truth, and forgiving (Exodus 34:6-7, KJV). Mercy is not a minor feature of God’s character. It runs deep.
But mercy does not mean God is indifferent to cruelty, deceit or the damage sin causes. The same encounter with Moses speaks of God dealing truthfully with guilt, and Psalm 89 links his throne with righteousness and judgement (Exodus 34:7, KJV; Psalm 89:14, KJV). His love is neither careless nor weak. He cares about what is good because he cares about people.
And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.
Look closely at Jesus
For Christians, Jesus gives the clearest answer to this question. When Philip asked to see the Father, Jesus directed him to what the disciples had already seen in him. Paul also describes Jesus as the image of the invisible God (John 14:9, KJV; Colossians 1:15, KJV).
Watch Jesus with people. He makes room for children when the disciples try to send them away (Mark 10:13-16, KJV). He responds with compassion to a man with leprosy and heals him (Mark 1:40-42, KJV). At Lazarus's tomb, he is deeply moved and weeps with those who grieve (John 11:33-35, KJV).
Jesus also does not merely offer kind words from a safe distance. He says that he came to give his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45, KJV). The New Testament sees this as the clearest display of God’s love, God sending his Son so that people might have life through him (1 John 4:9-10, KJV).
Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
Known, but never fully contained
God wants people to know him. Jesus teaches that God is Spirit, so he cannot be reduced to an image, a building or a place (John 4:24, KJV). Christians speak of one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, following Jesus's command to baptise in those three names (Matthew 28:19, KJV).
Still, no short answer can exhaust who God is. Through Isaiah, God says that his thoughts and ways are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8-9, KJV). That needn't stop honest questions. It can make room for humility, wonder and trust.
A good place to begin is one of the Gospels. Read about Jesus slowly, notice whom he welcomes, what he challenges, and how he loves. Then ask what his life shows you about God.