It is said that Augustine (354-430), a leader in the early church, was walking on the shore of the ocean one day and pondering the mystery of the Trinity. He noticed a little boy playing with a seashell. The youngster would scoop a hole in the sand, then go down to the waves and get his shell full of water and pour it into the hole he had made.

Augustine walked over to the boy and asked, "What are you doing?" The boy replied, "I am going to pour the sea into that hole."

"Ah," said Augustine to himself, "that is what I have been trying to do. Standing at the ocean of infinity, I have attempted to grasp it with my finite mind."

The Trinity does not fit the framework of logic, nor can it be fully analyzed with the microscope of our intellect. But that's no reason to conclude that theologians invented the idea. To declare that the one and only God has made Himself known as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit--three distinct but not separate persons--is simply expressing what the Scriptures teach (Jn. 10:29-30; Acts 5:3-4).

Doesn't it make sense that the One we worship and to whom we entrust our lives must be far beyond our limited ability to understand Him?  — Dennis J. De Haan