May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. 2 Corinthians 13:14 (NIV)
Lately I’ve been spending time with someone who wants to know Jesus more (via ZOOM, of course). We’ve been talking through questions he has. This past week one of the questions was about the Trinity; the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
A lot of us have “grown up” with this concept but have you ever tried to explain it to someone who is just hearing it for the first time? One woman I was sharing this with was raised practicing Hinduism. She grasped the concept of multiple Gods but didn’t quite grasp the “One God” concept right away. Another person was raised in Islam. This concept was really hard for him.
As I was praying, an idea popped into my head. Now, I am not a theologian but this really seemed to help me get my arms around how to explain it.
Imagine you were suddenly standing before God. What would you do? My first inclination would be to drop to my knees or my stomach or crouch into a ball. To get as low as I possibly could in deference to the power that was before me. I would want to pay homage and show that I, in awe, understood who this was.
Imagine now that you were standing before Jesus. What would you do? In my mind I would sit at his feet with my head on his knee and talk to him and share with him as he stroked my hair or I would sit next to him leaning in, sharing my heart and listening for his.
And finally, imagine you were encountering the Holy Spirit. What would be your posture? I imagine myself standing on a mountain with beautiful vistas surrounding me with my arms wide open taking in deep breaths of the beauty that encompassed me.
Before each one the posture is different. Before each one the access is different. But with all of them, there are many things in common. There is a peace in my soul; there is reverence and awe. There is a mind blowing feeling of acceptance and a deep down understanding that this is truth. There is no fear. There is only a love that I cannot truly comprehend but it satisfies my soul.
As I said, I am not a theologian but to me, this is in a non-theologian way to understand the Godhead. You may imagine this differently. What are your thoughts?