Trinity and Humanity



With three teenagers in the house, I hear a lot of music.  Most of the time, I can’t make out the lyrics (which is probably for the best), but when I was chauffeuring my daughter on her paper route one afternoon, a song by the artist Pink caught my ear.  Maybe it was because I could understand the lyrics, but I think it was because those lyrics struck a chord in my heart.  I bet they will in yours, too:

Pretty, pretty please

Don’t you ever, ever feel

Like you’re less than,

Less than perfect.

Pretty, pretty please,

If you ever, ever feel

Like you’re nothing,

You are perfect to me.

(F*&%$n’ Perfect, Pink)

The song lyrics (and title) actually have an expletive in them, which was censored for radio and for this blog.   Rather than dismiss the song because of its strong language, I prefer to think the expletive usage expresses how passionately we desire to be recognized as special and unique.

My husband and I have had three children together, and we have marveled at how different their looks and their personalities are.  Two of them have brown hair; one has blond.  One loves to read, but the other two hate it.  Two of them are social butterflies, and the other often prefers to stay home.  If we, as parents, feel such joy at discovering the specialness of our own children, why would the Triune God feel any differently about relating to and watching his children express their unique personalities?

Acknowledgement and acceptance of our individual personalities is one of the most basic human desires.  I’d like to assert that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit actually do that, and not in a patronizing way.  The Triune God doesn’t just tolerate us; they truly like us.  They delight in our uniqueness, in our individual beauty, even our quirks.  Ephesians 1:3-6 tells us that long before we were ever born, the Triune God planned to adopt us through Jesus Christ:

“Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love.  Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ.  (What pleasure he took in planning this!)  He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son” (The Message, Eph. 1:3-6).

It’s a difficult message to come to terms with, given the unreachable standards doled out by the media and our culture.  Even most churches, though they don’t realize it, sometimes make people feel as if they have to change themselves before God will find them acceptable or like them for who they are.

Our mission, should we choose to accept it, is to believe that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit like, love, and include us in their fellowship (through Jesus Christ), and that we are perfect, even in the midst of what we think are imperfections.   As we embrace whom we have been created to be, we gladly extend that same acceptance to others.  Like a stone dropped in a pond creates ripples outward, love that doesn’t ask for change is the kind of love that is transformational and healing.

When I hear that song by Pink, I hear the Triune God passionately saying to us all, “You don’t need to change for me.  I think you are perfect.  F*&%#n’ perfect.”

~Nan Kuhlman

photo courtesy of http://www.pinkspage.com