Trinity and Humanity

Due to the recent increase in humidity and my inability to properly wield a pair of scissors, I am having what is commonly known among women as “a bad hair day.”  Make that a bad hair week.  My bangs somehow have shrunk much shorter than what I had anticipated when I was trimming them.  The good thing about a bad haircut is that it lasts about two weeks, and then all is well.  This reminds me of the phrase “This, too, will pass.”

I’ve used this phrase to encourage myself and others when faced with difficulties greater than a bad bang-cut.  It helps to think about how life is constantly changing when we’re stuck in the mire of a trial.  But at the other end of the spectrum, we have moments in life that are so good, so precious, that we want time to just stand still – and it doesn’t.

I remember a moment like this about eight years ago.  My children, at that time age 12, 11, and 8, were with me, and my eight-year-old daughter took my hand to walk from the parking lot into our public library.  I remember intentionally savoring the moment, as I knew from my experience with my older sons that she would not be holding my hand in parking lots like this for much longer.  By recognizing the transience of life and the fleeting childhood of my children, I was able to firmly place in my mind this special moment and hold it sacred.

My two examples, the bad bang-cut and the precious hand holding in a library parking lot, show the two sides of life’s transience.  In some respects, the ever-changing nature of life works in our favor, but in others, it seems to work against us.  This makes us hunger for constancy, and all our efforts to control the transient nature of life ultimately fall short.  Death is imminent for all. How do we reconcile in our minds the impermanence of life?

It is in pondering questions like this that we look to God, who is above our chronological time and space.  We recognize that the Father, Son, and Spirit have always been and will always be, and more importantly, that their love for all humanity has always been and will always be.  By being held in these everlasting arms, we can take a breath and create a little space, a little peace in a difficult situation.  Because we know we’re held tenderly and dearly, we can create space in our lives, in our memories, for moments of sacred expression that reveal the flow of that Divine Love. We can enjoy the beauty and fragility of this life, knowing that Divine Love and Fellowship has ensured life eternal for all who wish to experience it.

I’m not worried about my bad bang-cut (I’ll know better next time!), and I’m becoming more watchful and aware of happy moments that show the expression of the Father, Son, and Spirit flowing to me through others and through me to others.  I can relish the changeability of life, knowing the certainty and fidelity of the Love that made it that way.

~by Nan Kuhlman

photo courtesy of  The Makeover Guy