Like many Christians, I’v had difficulty trying to comprehend the Trinity. The enormity of God fills me with awe. Sometimes when I see Him represented in a riot of colour in my summer garden or in the majesty of an Alberta sunset, it is nearly impossible for me to accept that I could be important to Him. Yet, Christ has called him “Abba” and because Christ did we too may do so.
In Jesus we see God’s deepest love for us. Here was His word made flesh. Here, he spoke in action, in life, in example. Here he chided, forgave and sacrificed. Jesus opened all the doors and invited us in.
In all this the Holy Spirit moves; sometimes as a gentle whispering wind and other times like a howling hurricane, bending us almost to breaking. The Holy Spirit pulls at our human will, beseeching us to do it God’s way.
But it was always difficult for me to meld these concepts into one … until recently.
One evening, the opening scene of a local stage production revealed an actor standing against the curtain. First, a central spotlight fell on him, then a second from the left side and finally a spotlight from the right joined the others. I watched in fascination as his initial shadow on the curtain behind him was joined by the other two. There were obviously three images before me, each a little different from the other, yet all of the same person.
I sat mesmerized as an insight into the relationship between the three images reflected what the Trinity represented … one central figure from which all action proceeded—yet three images. The Trinity is still a great mystery and this insight an inadequate interpretation, but this small incident has helped me to better understand the concept of the Holy Trinity.
