The Mystery of God

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“for as I was walking along I saw your many shrines. And one of your altars had this inscription on it: ‘To an Unknown god.’ This God whom you worship without knowing, is the one I’m telling you about.”
Acts 17:23 New Living Translation

It can be difficult to explain God to those who do not know Him. I’m pretty good at talking about Jesus and the gospel and it’s not too hard to explain the Father and creation.  Those two persons of the trinity are covered pretty well in Sunday school. However, explaining the trinity itself and how the Holy Spirit fits into all this gets trickier.  This is partly because of my own lack of understanding of Him. It is also because of who He is! The more I get to know about the Holy Spirit, the more mysterious He becomes.

Recently I visited Untermyer Gardens in Yonkers, New York.  This picture is of the dome of the Temple of Love in the garden. I’ve realized that just as Paul did in the scripture above, I could use this image to help explain God to others. The dome has three parts but they all make one dome. The metalwork is made up of hearts representing God’s love.  If this photo was centered it would be a better representation, but the fact that it’s not reminds me that I have more to learn about the Holy Spirit.

The garden itself reminds me of what I do know. It was once beautiful but over time was vandalized, broken and deteriorated. Recently renovations have begun to change it around and are slowly restoring the garden to its splendor. That is how the Holy Spirit works in us. He slowly is restoring us to the glorious creation the Father designed before sin did its damage. He is able to do this because Christ paid the price, just as donors are doing for this garden.  Until this sinful world is gone we will always require restorations. The Holy Spirit is here to do that work in us. It’s my hope that one day our understanding will no longer be skewed.

Text Copyright Richelle Hecker
Photo Copyright Victoria Hecker