The "Good News" or Gospel of Jesus Christ was not only that the Messiah had come, but also that God was not the harsh, vengeful, unknowable, distant, God beyond comprehension, but instead was a close, loving Daddy or Father, in the most loving sense.  (Mark 14:36).  After Jesus fundamentally changed the idea of who God was, God was depicted, especially in Western art, as a man, a divine person, as our loving, kind "Father in Heaven."