Advent of Paradox

Advent: Week 1

Me (finishing the day’s Advent reading from The Jesse Tree):  “… before time, He had another plan.  A plan not to destroy the world, but to rescue it, by sending His Own Son to save it.”

David:  Who is God’s son?

I have just played the part of Gabriel in our church’s live nativity, delivering to the first human ears the Name Above All Names, and perhaps the first Trinitarian statement of the New Testament: “The HOLY SPIRIT shall come upon you, and the power of the MOST HIGH shall overshadow you: therefore the Holy One you are to bear shall be the SON OF GOD.”

Me (smiling):  JESUS is God’s Son.

David (quizzical look):  But…

Me (smiling some more): Jesus is God; and Jesus is also God’s Son.

David (fully cognizant of the former proposition, and properly trained in the latter, but only now seeing them juxtaposed): But how can there be two Jesuses?

Me:  There are not two Jesuses.  God the Father is God; and Jesus His Son is also God.  There is only one God; but there are three Persons: God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  It is called Trinity, three in one.  It is hard to understand.

David (still hung up on the mathematical difficulty):  Three in one?

Me:  Yes.

David:  But… who is the Holy Spirit?

Assembling Tradition (directions)