God as a relationship

I may be making too much of this, but I would think that God would have to be a trinity. If He weren't, He would have to point to something outside of Himself, or something in addition to Himself, for the model of a true relationship. He would almost have to have had created Adam to solve the dilemma that would bring. God's isolation surely could not reconcile the relational aspects of our lives and the declaration that we are made in His image and, therefore, unique in the universe. We could not have been created in His image and relate to other people.

And then what of the fall-sullied relationship that we have with Him now? Would we (and He perhaps?) be forever doomed to measuring the quality of our relationships with other people through the lens of a mere two and a quarter chapters of Genesis plus the longings of a God that loved and then lost love? It would smack of some level of impotence I would think. We know that He moved and continues to be moved by the love that He is for His creatures, but the foundation of that love is not crumbling and weak. It is as firm as it ever was the members of the Trinity relate to one another in the purest and most spectacular way imaginable.

And then what of His simplicity? God is more than a loving God. God is Love. God is more than alive. God is life. God is more than a God who relates to His creation. God, Himself, is relationship. We would complicate God a great deal in every aspect of His being if He were somewhat beholden to us for the expression of His relational nature.

I just can't see any way around this. There is but God one God. That one God would be quite a bit less than who He is if it were not for the Persons that He exists as.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

tightvnc keyboard mapping problem in Ubuntu 9.04

Image
I have been, off and on, having an issue with the keys on my keyboard mapping to the correct values when using the tightvnc client when paired with the vncserver vino in Ubuntu 9.04. I am not exactly sure what keyboard layout the client and server was expecting, but it seemed like every time I restarted the OS the keyboard mapping problem would come back and I would be at square one again. Well, I think I have found the workaround I was looking for . Hopefully this will help anyone else that is having this issue.
Read more

The manifestation of the "I" and the gift of self - Part 1

I am continuing my journey through Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body and I had never realized how body-focused the 2nd and 3rd chapters of Genesis truly are.  But then it all makes so much more sense when it was brought to my attention that the body we have been given in a manifestation of me, or to put it another way, the "I". And it goes beyond that still. Not only does it reveal me, but my body also reveals, in no small measure, the image of God. That is not to say that God is made of flesh like me as is depicted in so many Renaissance paintings. The old man in the sky is nothing like the God as revealed in the Bible. However, the love that God is, the holiness that he is, the justice he is, the righteousness that he is...all of it is shown to the world through my body. In a very real way, my body allows for others, and for me, to participate in the mystery (the hiddenness) of the image of God. That is by design; from the beginning.  If God is revealed in nature...
Read more

Let me learn what I need to learn

In the “I don’t know what God is trying to produce in me…” portion of the blog: I work across (not with) an incredibly loud person. We are in cubes and he refuses to use a handset when he is in a conference call…or headphones. Everything is done via speaker phone. Maybe his handset is broken? I don’t know and am too timid (read “interested in keeping the peace”) to ask him. Of course he shouts into his speaker phone as well when he talks. Now he even refuses to use a keyboard. He has a speech recognition program that allows him to speak to the computer rather than type. Good for him! Now we can all hear “Comma…open parenthesis…close parenthesis…tab…tab...tab…” Was it my sin or my parents sin that relegated me to this placement in the office. We all know the answer to that but man…it sure feels like I am getting punished for something.
Read more