Trinity Sunday

We've heard it once, we've heard it a thousand times--the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. My first week in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, has taught me a thing or two about selfishness. Children show us how truly selfish we are, but also how to surrender that. As a parent, you must sacrifice for your kids. You give up feeling fully rested and fed at any given moment in the day. You're sick? Well you had better hurry up and get better, because there are three little pairs of feet that are gonna be stomping up and down the hardwood stairs all day until you get yourself out of bed. Physical sacrifice, however, is the least of parental perturbation. You must loose yourself of the need to be accepted and loved by your child. They shout,"I hate you!" You must look on them with not an ounce less of love than the moment you first cradled their frail frame in your arms on the day of their birth. You tell them "no" out of sheer protection and aged concern, and they sprint in the other direction. You reach out, they recoil. The Father, oh how He loves us. We are that stubborn child. We are difficult to love, making short-sighted decisions and rejecting those whose only aim is to aid us. We wrestle, wreak havoc, and wrest the things most precious to life from the hands of others. So let's (yes, you, and I, and all) take a lesson from the Trinity. See how the relationship between a parent and child on earth approaches that of the unconditional--and then realize that our Heavenly Father is that much more perfect and holy. Oh, how He loves us.