Trinity – Can’t have one without the other (two)

For most Christians, one of the more difficult concepts we have to handle is the fact that our God exists in what has come to be known as the Trinity – One God, Three Entities.   Now this may initially look to be in conflict with the age old Judeo-Christian standard which makes us mono-theist believers.  (Whaaat?  Three Gods??)  This potential glitch occurs because as humans we hear, ‘God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit’ and we immediately create categories, roles, and players for those roles.  Well, not so much really.  So, I thought I was pretty clever a few years back when I figured that the Trinity could be explained simply by imagining that our One God existed in three states – sort of like water – depending on the circumstance.  And although I could visualize an ice cube sitting in a puddle with steam rising, it didn’t seem to be ‘divine’ enough.  God is not some magic trick.

Then today, being the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity, I was reminded by our pastor not to overthink it.  We usually get into trouble when we try to limit some of the eternal mysteries of God by applying our extremely limited human experiences.  But if we make a relatively small adjustment in context and start with the appropriate Bible verse, it starts to come together. Read 1 John 4:8, Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.  God is love.  God is not a person, at least not in the way that you, or I, or even Jesus is a person.  God exists as relationship, as a loving relationship – God, the Father, the Lover; God, the Son, the Beloved; and God the Spirit, the Love between the Lover and the Beloved.  Now apply that to any loving relationship, Husband/Wife, Parent/Child, Owner/Pet, all are sourced from the source of all love, God.  Our ability to love and be loved is the essence of our creation and existence.  It is the reason we are.  Period.  (I hope that helps you as much as it helped me.)

Note:  I have to reiterate like all of our Christian beliefs, this concept of the Trinity does not in any way contradict any apparent laws of science that I am aware of…This belief that God and science are mutually exclusive of one another is just downright silly – right?

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *