Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer; the Lord of hosts: ‘I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.’ (Is 44:6)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God … and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. (Jn 1:1; 14)
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? (I Cor 3:16)
Father, Lord Jesus, and Spirit: I don’t understand, but I praise who you are.
Imagine a world where temperatures don’t exist, where yesterday and today are at the same time, where light needs no source, and where creatures never die. You would not be imagining this universe. But no problem. Stephen Hawking and many other physicists today posit the idea of multiple universes. They speculate that at least one and perhaps many other universes reside outside our own, and one of the central aspects of their theories is that these universes do not operate under the same laws of physics as our universe. In other words, a thousand years may be like a day, light may have no physical source, and, for all we know, creatures may live forever. I find such physics ironic because, in one sense, it says what Christians have been saying for thousands of years. There is another world out there, a different type of world from what we see and touch, but just as real nonetheless. Now I am not here to talk about alternate universes, but I bring them up because I think they may help us with a bit of theology about God.
Sometimes, when we talk about God, we want Him to fit inside the universe we live in. This desire is understandable, for this universe is the experience we know, so we may, thus, struggle with ideas like God being three persons but one God. In fact, Christians often avoid discussing the Trinity altogether because they can’t exactly explain it. They’re sort of embarrassed. “Um … Well … you see … three people make up one God … and …” The fact of the matter is that the Trinity, on the surface at least, doesn’t seem to fit the known laws of physics on Earth. But this is precisely where Stephen Hawking might be of some help. You see, God isn’t from this universe, and if Hawking is correct, then God is not bound by the same laws of physics that bind you and me. Indeed, in a spiritual world, perhaps personalities can fit together differently than they do here. In that world, perhaps one being can be three persons. In that world, perhaps the concept of a Trinity is not so hard to understand. In fact, it might be the norm. If we were to go to that world, we might find that we would retain our unique individuality and yet also be swallowed up in the glory of God. At the same time.
We must understand that God is bigger than we are and that He is not from here. In our current experience we live in four observable dimensions. The first three are length, width, and height — what we call space. The fourth is time. Virtually everything we see can be measured in those four dimensions, and as long as something fits neatly within those dimensions, we are OK with it. We can see it. But what if we encountered a being of twenty dimensions, a hundred dimensions, or infinite dimensions. We would then be out of our league. We would be like a three-year-old girl trying to understand calculus. The Trinity is this sort of thing. It involves dimensions beyond our normal experience. It is spiritual calculus, but we are spiritual infants. The reason we have difficulty grasping the Trinity is that we are dealing with God. The Trinity is God. And when you fit God inside your brain, you no longer have God.
When God revealed Himself as a Trinity, He did not mean us to analyze and discuss it. He meant us to marvel in it and enjoy Him. So enjoy the Father. Enjoy the Son. And Enjoy the Spirit … three in one.
