The Trinity

The Trinity. What comes to your mind when you read these words? I know the concept of the Trinity has been a source of great contention and confusion for centuries. I think the first words that come to my mind are God, holy, and mystery. I have pondered over and over how to explain the Trinity to my kids when they ask how God is one and yet also three. We have used the playdough analogy of a brand new container of playdough (because let’s face it, in our house, all our playdough is tainted with other colors thanks to a preschooler who likes to make playdough pizza). If you take the playdough out and divide it into three separate shapes, they are unique but still made from the same lump of dough. This analogy falls short in so many ways, but it’s the best this mama can do when explaining such a lofty concept to little ones.

In the theological circles that my husband runs in, there are much deeper discussions of the function and unity of the Trinity. But today, as I was worshiping through song with my church family, something hit me like a ton of bricks. It was both jolting and delightfully reassuring. I don’t fully understand how God is one in three and three in one, and I won’t understand it this side of heaven. But what hit me is how breathtakingly beautiful the Trinity is. 

There is a Father who loves, teaches, and even disciplines us with a tender, fatherly heart—a Father who pursues us with an unstoppable determination to save us from ourselves and shower us with unconditional love. There is a Son who is the Creator of all things and the Living Word, who was willing to put on flesh, take on our sorrows and hardships, and bear the weight of our sin to give us HIS perfect righteousness and bring us back to his Father. There is the Holy Spirit, who whispers the message of the Father to our hearts—whispers that tell us we are loved, that guide us down the path we should walk, and that bring comfort and reassurance when our fears and doubts threaten to drown our faith.

What a beautiful God he is, and what a gift to have a God who is three exquisite beings in one. Though I may not be able to understand how our God exists as the Trinity, I joyfully accept it and love him all the more for it!