Our Sacred Stories The Mystery of God’s Hug – The Love of the Trinity

“Mystery” can mean many things.  Sometimes we use it in reference to something that is hard to understand.  Often it refers to a story such as a novel or movie in which the ending only becomes clear as it finishes.  A “mystery” can also mean a question to which we cannot find an answer or a solution, it remains unsolved.  In our faith tradition, we use the word “mystery” for some of the greatest  aspects of our faith.  In this case, what we mean by a mystery is a truth or aspect of our faith the truth of which is so great, that we can never exhaust it.

If we think this is rather strange, perhaps we might note that our faith is not the only aspect of our lives where we encounter such “mystery”.  Consider for a moment our relationships with others, especially the intimate relationship of a married couple.  As long as they are together and as close as they may become, they will often admit that they never fully understand one another.  Each day, each new circumstance will reveal something new about their partner.  And that is a “wonder-full” thing about their adventure through life together, a true mystery in our lives.

The mystery of the Trinity is the mystery of God’s love, God’s hug for all humanity, all creation.  The great story of this wonder or mystery is to be found in the first book of the Jewish or Old Testament, The Book of Genesis (Gen.1).  This account tells of God’s overflowing love for all creation as God’s love brings every thing into life.  The story is a poetic expression of God’s love and the delight in which God holds all that has come into being: God saw all he had made, and indeed it was very good (Gen.1:31).

In the prologue to John’s Gospel, John reminds us of the wonder of God’s delight as God joins us by sharing our flesh in Jesus.  The Gospel writer puts it very simply: The Word was made flesh, he lived among us, and we saw his glory, the glory that is his as the only Son of the Father (John 1:14).  The divine and the human come together.

Our God is Trinity – Father, Son, Spirit.  This is one of the deepest and the earliest beliefs of the Christian Tradition.  It is also most expressive of our image of God.  To have faith in God who expresses love and harmony, compassion and care, healing and comfort, is to have faith in the Trinity, a God who hugs us constantly to God’s own self, always and forever.

To see God as Mother or Father, a loving, life-giving parent is to see our God as the creative one, giving life to all that is.  This is our God who gives and sustains life in all the universe.  More than this, this is the God, who like a parent loves life into existence and supports it with this same inexhaustible love.

This loving, creating God has come among us in Jesus, the incarnation of God.  So great is the love held in the heart of our God that it spills out in an overflowing flood as God takes on our humanity in the person of Jesus.  God is ever with us, Emmanuel.

Such love cannot be just for a moment or a time.  It is constant and forever.  In the Spirit we are given the continuous hug of our God.  We cannot win it or lose it.  God’s hug is ever with us, in our joys and sorrows, our good times and our bad.  Like the hug of the mother, the embrace of the father, the love of our God, expressed in the Trinity has a warmth and comfort that draws us together.  We are held in the heart of God.  What an overflowing mystery!  Truly, God’s hug.