God is relational

On Trinity Sunday we looked at Romans 8:12-17 and John 3:1-17. What we believe about the trinity makes a difference in how we perceive God and the nature of the universe. Since God is triune (three persons), God is relational. This means that love has always existed. This also means that the universe is a safe place to be, and we don’t have to be afraid of death. We can trust in the goodness of God because his very essence is love. He loves us and desires us to experience that love. Through Jesus we can become the sons and daughters of God. As the children of God, we get to call God “Daddy” or if we speak Aramaic “Abba,” an intimate term of endearment for the heavenly father. 

If you’ve ever spent time around a 2 year old, you will remember that small children are quick to call for their parents. Additionally, they keep calling until there’s a response. They always have the expectation that the parent will respond so they call out until the father or mother attend to them. The parent is their “safe spot,” their home. This sense of home is not reliant on a place as much as it is person, their mother or father. 

When Nicodemus in John 3 asks Jesus about what it means to be born again, it highlights the confusing nature of spiritual rebirth. We may not understand it fully ourselves, but we can know that it is an experience offered to us in love by a loving God. Our hearts become God’s very home. We can know the safety and security of God’s loving parenthood because he resides in us. We can know that everything’s going to be okay even if it’s not okay because our confidence can be in Jesus rather than ourselves or our outward circumstances. In this we are changed, born again from the inside out.