Saturday, May 19, 2007
Three in One
2:29 PM | 
Posted by
Norma Allen
Thinking about the doctrine of God as Trinity we have to admit that the concept of three in one is not difficult to grasp. There are examples of such things in our everyday life.
An obvious three-in-one is water, without which there would be no life on our planet. Water exists for us in three forms, most commonly as the liquid. We don't just depend on drinking water for our survival, we consist largely of water. Between 55% and 78% of the human body is water, varying according to age, gender and amount of body fat. It makes me thirsty just thinking about it! Other than liquid water, we experience water in its solid form, as ice, and as water vapour. The three states of matter can be seen as a simple and imperfect simile for the three persons of the Trinity.
We also experience the notion of three in one as we contemplate the material world that surrounds us. We view our environment in terms of three dimensions: depth, width, and height. Our everyday understanding of the physical world is interpreted entirely within this strange concept of three in one. Theoretical physicists might postulate the existence of more dimensions to our universe, but for practical purposes, we only experience three.
Is it possible that God has built this into the universe to be an object lesson for us?
An obvious three-in-one is water, without which there would be no life on our planet. Water exists for us in three forms, most commonly as the liquid. We don't just depend on drinking water for our survival, we consist largely of water. Between 55% and 78% of the human body is water, varying according to age, gender and amount of body fat. It makes me thirsty just thinking about it! Other than liquid water, we experience water in its solid form, as ice, and as water vapour. The three states of matter can be seen as a simple and imperfect simile for the three persons of the Trinity.
We also experience the notion of three in one as we contemplate the material world that surrounds us. We view our environment in terms of three dimensions: depth, width, and height. Our everyday understanding of the physical world is interpreted entirely within this strange concept of three in one. Theoretical physicists might postulate the existence of more dimensions to our universe, but for practical purposes, we only experience three.
Is it possible that God has built this into the universe to be an object lesson for us?
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About Me
- Norma Allen
- Founder of Nallenart and author of L'Art de lire, a French as a Second Language program for homeschooling and classroom instruction. In addition to homeschooling her three children, Norma taught French in the classroom, and online. She has offered seminars to homeschoolers and classroom teachers. Since 1991, Norma has taught guitar at Still River Studio.
Her abiding passion, however, has been learning about how God has reached out to relate to us, his creation. She enjoys reading, meditating, and formal study of the Bible, theology, religion of all kinds, philosophy, and the psychology of being human. Norma has taught on these various issues in a number of settings from informal coffee houses to church Bible studies, and in the classroom. You are invited to join in the dialogue at DisturbingTheWorld.org.
