Trinity

One God the Creator It was the second day of Christmas, and, even though his coming warmed our hearts, it was very cold outside. The fire in the fireplace I built not only for atmosphere but to warm the chill inside. Sitting before the fire, I soon became mesmerized by the darting flames burning brilliantly, though soon the intense heat forced me to move farther back for comfort. Staring at the flames, I noticed how they not only warmed the room but cast their luminous spell all across the foyer. I was immediately reminded of God. There was the fire, and the light that comes from the fire, casting its mystic glow throughout the room, and the warmth that comes from the fire through the flames, warming every object around it. Yet the flames were not the fire, nor was the heat the flames. The three were distinct, but they were inseparable, save for how they each affected me. The light and the heat touched me immediately. The source of the fire was present but could not be seen. My memory wandered back many years, to one evening when I was baby-sitting my lawyer's children, Joe, John, and Peter. Richard and Elizabeth Della Ratta had asked me to mind the boys until they returned. At bedtime, as I tucked in the little ones, Peter said to me, "Fahd, I have a problem with God." "Pete, you're only six years old. How can you have a problem with God?" "But, I do, Fahd." "How come you only have problems when you're going to bed?" "It's the only time I have to talk to you." "Okay, Pete, what's this big problem you have with God?" "Fahd, when you tell me about God, you talk about God as our Father, and you talk about Jesus, and you also talk about . . . the . . . you know, the other guy." "The Holy Spirit." "That's right. Now, you talk about these three people, and you tell me there is only one God. If there are three of them, how can there be only one God?" "Pete, God is not like us humans. God's nature is different. See that lamp there? There is the bulb, there is the light coming from the bulb, and there is heat coming through the light from the bulb. They are all different, but you can't separate them. They're all together as one. That is something like what God is like." "But, Fahd, God doesn't work on electricity." "Pete, why don't you just close your eyes and think about it? I'm sure it will put you right to sleep." As I went back downstairs I thought, "How young we are when we begin to question about God. We humans are born philosophers, with a thirst to understand our existence. I suppose once we experience the vastness of the world and all the complicated beings in it, it is only a simple next step to ask ourselves where it all came from, and who made it, and then the whole train of questions that logically follow. Now as I sit before the fire in my study, my mind wanders back to Moses and his experience with the burning bush, the bush that burned but was not consumed. I am sure the voice he heard that day haunted him all his life. "Moses, come no closer! Take off your shoes, for the ground on which you stand is holy ground! I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." God then goes on to tell Moses that he is concerned about his people in Egypt, and how they are sorely hurting from the cruelty of their slave drivers. Interesting. I sometimes have a problem with how so many people view the Bible as inspired. I have no doubt that God's inspiration guided each author to write, but as to what God intended people should accept as inspired is perplexing. Some say each word is inspired. Others who are familiar with the history and literary forms of the Bible's books have a more open understanding of inspiration. That something happenedGirzone, Joseph F. is the author of 'Trinity' with ISBN 9780385504577 and ISBN 0385504578.