God - a three in one trinity of parent, son and holy spirit is probably one of the hardest things as Christians to not only explain to others but to try to connect with ourselves. It can make us look foolish and perhaps put doubt in our own belief when we can't readily explain what is at the center of our faith. So today, I'm going to give you a picture to think about - perhaps not 100% theologically correct or translatable but a jump start to understanding the greater that is the Triune God.
Let us envision God as a beautiful art piece, perhaps say a nice summer field of flowers. The greater painting is God, the creator of the world. Since God has three parts - parent (often referred to by the single gender of Father, which to this blogger does not represent the whole), son (Jesus Christ) and Holy Spirit. There are three primary colors - Red, Yellow and Blue. These colors put together make up all the rest of the colors and also this beautiful art piece. Let's thus call each of God's parts one of the primary colors.
First let us say, what beautiful things can come when all the primary colors are put together - creation is truly a marvelous thing. But we cannot so easily say it is just by putting the colors together that we get this piece of art. First we have to remember the rule of primary colors - if you mix all three primary colors together you get a gross mucky color of mud. That is what we do when we confuse and down play the importance of the trinity. That is what happens when we go to explain something so much bigger then ourselves and our words fail us - we get muck! And we create muck! We shouldn't be in the business of creating muck. Instead we should be in the business as Christians as helping to point others in the direction of God. Helping others understand the difficulties of our faith and to grow in relationship with Christ. It is hard to trust God if you are blindly following from far away but with a close relationship we can trust without prejudice.
Ok, back to out painting - God. Within this painting might seem like every color but the reality is that each only made up of the three colors. Even white itself is all colors from the color spectrum. What is important to color theory (which most artist us to give more depth to their paintings) is that to encourage more of a 3D look, you often layer, using all the colors but not mixing them together making muck but instead allowing the colors to enhance and deepen the way in which you see the third. For example if you want to make the blue sky look like it is deep within the painting you would first paint the background orange, sending the blue on top then further back.
What an amazing thought to translate into our relationship with God. God the creator is a vast being who is often hard for us to connect to. The three aspects of God - parent, son and Holy Spirit in different ways show us a deeper relationship with God and the boarder picture of God. Without them we would have an even harder time understanding. God would be just a blank white Canvas, so vast and out of reach. Yet because of God's love and desire for a relationship with us, instead of a blank canvas we have a beautiful creation. In each aspect of God's creation we are drawn to a deeper understanding of what God is offering us and where God is in the world.
We each new day we are brought to a deeper and more full understanding of the trinity when we allow each aspect to intertwine and reveal more not just about its self but about the rest. Just like in color theory when we are exploring say the Holy Spirit, we can certainly benefit from exploring how Jesus interacted and how the father sent the Holy Spirit, thus deepening our understanding and our relationship with the spirit.
I hope that through this blog, you may come to understand God on a deeper level and seek out a relationship with our creator beyond just the mucky relationship of doubt and uncertainty. Spend some time getting to know the Parent, Son and Holy Spirit, separately and yet understanding how they work not only together but in the greater whole of Creation bringing us closer and closer to a trusting and powerful relationship with God.
