We talked about the Trinity on our first day of teams class. Since then, we have done so much more. But the importance of looking at the Trinity for the model of the perfect team seems really important to me. So, since we started with it, I thought I'd like to end with it too...
20"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
John 17:20-23
The first team was the Trinity. God is a perfect union of 3 distinct persons. They each have different attributes, but they are all equally God. Together, they form a perfect communion. That communion is the very essence of unity, peace, interdependence, perfection, and love.
Several years ago, I struggled with the philosophical question of the purpose of man. Why did God design us and create us. Surely it is not just to watch our silly antics all of the time. If that was the case, He would have destroyed all of us long ago because of our sin. No, I think He created us out of love. I think that the perfect love that flowed out of the union of the Trinity was something that God couldn’t help but share. “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness (Genesis 1:26).’” That was God’s first act of love toward man. But the love continues to flow from God to man, even now.
When I was little, I wondered what it meant to be created in God’s image. Certainly it doesn’t mean that we physically look like God. No, it had to be something else. Many adults tried to explain abstract ideas about what it meant to be created in the image of God, but none of them were satisfactory (I guess I was analytical as a child too). It wasn’t until I discovered this idea of unity and love that I felt I was beginning to understand God’s image. God is not just the Father or the Son. He is not just the Holy Spirit. He is all three, in one, perfectly unified and springing forth love. That is what His image is. So, to be created in the image of God is to be designed for community. To bear God’s image, we must bear also His love. To experience life as we were designed to experience it, we also must be unified with one another.
The purpose of man: to bear God’s image
The image of God: perfect unity and love
Two very difficult answers to two very difficult questions. Bearing God’s image is not easy, but it has great reward.
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