We know that God is not a big bird. We recognize that the Scripture contains many figures of speech.
Every language consists of such literary devices.
They are such a part of our everyday language that they often go unnoticed by those who speak the language because the figures are automatically interpreted to uncover their underlying reality. These same figures of speech sound quite strange to a person whose second language is English, and does not know the meaning of our English figures of speech. I would venture to say that would imagine a man holding a ball, but such an interpretation is false, even though it is literal. To eliminate figures of speech, similes, euphemisms, etc. Because they are part of every language, we must be able to recognize them, and interpret them accordingly.