# Een beeld voor de Drie-eenheid

Een (tekortschietend) beeld voor de Drie-eenheid is een (dag-)dromer — laten we zeggen iemand die in een stoel zit en fantaseert met wat vrienden bloemen te plukken in een vallei. Er is de persoon (de „vader”) in de stoel, de persoon (de „zoon”) die bloemen plukt, en de subtielere invloed (de „geest”) waarmee de dromer de vrienden laat doen wat hij of zij wil.

C
  Luckily there is a way in which we can maybe glimpse a bit of it. The Bible tells that God has created us in His image. Now that does not mean our bodies, because the infinite God doesn't have a body, but He has created us with creative minds. We only have to close our eyes, and we can dream up a world of our own. That is only a very feeble semblance of the way in which God creates, yet in our own little way we do create stories and dreams.
M
  I had never thought of it that way, but yes, we indeed are miniature creators, each of us. In a way God is dreaming the world, and His dream is so real that it is our reality. Yet, a dreamer is more real than his dream, so God must be a lot more real than we are.
Comment
  Take time to get this notion across before continuing. Or, use another image if you have one with which you feel more comfortable.
C
  All right, so let's see how we can imagine God becoming finite. Suppose I lie in bed, and (day)dream of a valley full of flowers. In my dream, I am picking a bouquet, say. Now there are two, or even three ways in which someone else in the valley may conceive me. First of all there is the creator me, who is lying in bed. Then there is the me who is picking flowers, and who is part of the creation. And finally, I may decide what I want people in my dream to think and do, so there is a third way in which people can experience me. In Christianity, these three aspects of the same, single God are called the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I fully agree that these names are confusing, though.
Comment
  Stress that this is only a helpful image to grasp a supernatural truth. Any problem with the image just shows how hard it is for us to grasp the reality — it is no indication of a problem with that reality.
M
  You can say so. I have always thought that the Trinity was a kind of family, with God at the head.
C
  Yes, many Muslims think so. The whole thing is the more confusing, since on the one hand the Father and the Son are clearly one single God, yet on the other hand, like with me dreaming, one is in the bed, and the other in the valley, so to speak. We could speak for hours on the little that we can understand of the nature of God, but let's leave that for another time, and get our thing on justice and mercy done first, shall we?
M
  Yes, let's. But I definitely should like to come back on this Trinity thing someday.