One of my favorite exercises that we do here at Incarnate is the worship session that happens right before we unpack the concepts of Unity and Diversity. The Students sit around tables in groups of three, and have to work together to paint, pastel, pencil, marker, whatever (!) on pre-drawn ancient symbols of the Trinity. The artwork that gets produced in this just over 30 minute collaboration is inspiring, even if is is Dancers and Musicians doing the work as well as Visual Artists!
Of course delving into the Trinity is to jump straight into the deep-end of a seminal and over-arching truth so basic to Christianity, that you don't have Biblical Christianity without it. Scholars and Theologians alike have tried for centuries to "nut this out" as my British friends like to put it, and although many have come up with some incredible thinking, and certainly some truth, there is still mystery, and how can't there be - God is God and we are not. I'm a little concerned about a god that I can wrap my head around!
Of course there are some beautiful examples in nature - I think one of the best is H2O - 3 atoms make the most incredible substance needed for all life, and even those 3 atoms form a molecule that comes in 3 forms depending on the temperature. Not to mention that so many standards of volume, weight, temperature itself, and altitude, are all measured by the most basic substance for life itself that is 3 in 1.
But it gets more personal than that. Here-in the truth of the Trinity is the "stuff" of Unity, and the "stuff" of perfect Love. God is one - as part of His essence, not His will, and the same goes for love. He doesn't love because He wills to, or feels like it - He is love - it is integral to His very nature, because of the love that Father, Son, and Spirit intrinsically have for one another. Isn't it interesting that the most powerful emotion, commitment, and motivation known to man, comes from the very essence of our Trinitarian God. Colossians 1 tells us that "in Him all things hold together", and yes, atomically they do.
But also, in terms of relationships, God is so love and so unity, that He instinctively responds to brokenness and separation with the desire to reconcile things back to wholeness, and back to Himself. Just read 2 Corinthians 5:17-21, and you'll get the idea - that God was in Christ reconciling the whole world back to Himself, and now, He has given that ministry to us.
And that my friends is one of the main reasons we move to Italy for 90 days every two years and pour into some awesome people who traffic in some of the most powerful communicative medium known the man - The Arts. If God Himself calls on his awesome creation to declare His Glory, then certainly the human beings who have been created in His creative image are called to do the same.
It is one of the great privileges of my life to engage in this work. Teri and I literally love it, and experience the fulness of faith and the pleasure of God to do this. We were born for this. To help fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, fellow artists, launch into the depths of their potential for the greater glory of God and the "proclamation" of the Gospel and the furtherance of Gods' Kingdom? Well, in terms of ministry, for us it doesn't get much better than this!
Thank you for your prayers for us in this season. We could not be here doing this without that, and we trust that you too are experiencing the fulness of joy in your ministry as well, that you were called to do with all your heart soul mind and strength.
God Bless
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