Humanity’s Trinity of Being

The remarkable qualities of a hazelnut may be few. But there are these:

“In this little thing I saw three properties. The first is that God made it. The second, that he loves it. And the third, that God keeps it.”

~Julian of Norwich (1342–1416)

And as the anchoress of the church and mystic pondered in the sight of that little round nut in her hand, she noted what is remarkable about all made things; humans as a case in point.

1. The Miracle In Being Made By God

Many take for granted the fact of their being. Many, indeed, curse the day of that fact—that they came into being. We all, from time to time, resonate with these. Life hurts much, and much too much at times. Consolation is in many forms of modern anaesthesia. But the Christian’s consolation is in God; to be made by the Lord of Creation is no small miracle. If one hazelnut can be celebrated, how much more should one human being?

Perhaps the most remarkable miracle in being made by God is the length of one life in consideration of the length of one day. So many days we typically get; each one made by the Lord.

Everything the Lord makes is a miracle.

2. The Miracle In Being Loved By God

We are sustained by God. We are his craftsmanship and there is, therefore, special ownership. What is owned is loved. And how much more is a thing loved that has its own God-acknowledged and decisive spirit?

That God loves us, beyond any human rejection, is a miracle. Nothing and nobody can deprive us of this love. It’s a fact of being human; an organismic creation of the Divine. And how much more evidence is there of being loved than of being kept by God?

3. The Miracle In Being Kept By God

We are God’s for all eternity, made and chosen to be loved beyond our will or satisfaction. What God has made and has loved God will keep—at least here on earth. If it is the case that those that reject God will themselves be rejected, an irrefutable thesis for the Christian, then those kept by God who do not wish to be kept (beyond this life) may be disposed into the land of hell. But that is beside the present point.

There’s inherent importance in knowing that, because we are made in the image of God, and that we are chosen to be loved by the Creator, it is the Lord’s eternal desire to keep us. And the fight to keep us into eternity prevails evermore now in the spiritual realm. Though Divine desire cannot be contested, we, by God’s love, can agree to let go and, consequently, not go—and into an abyss beyond God’s relevance we may go.

Those kept of God—in taking their possession of salvation into eternity—were made, are loved, and will be kept for the entirety of their eternal existence. At no time, and in no way, did God not know them. There could not be a more celebrated fact.

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These three miracles of God we can be thankful for: we were made, and are loved, and will be kept by the Lord. The first two are facts whether we like them or not. The last one is dependent on us. Do we accept what God has done for us?

© 2012 S. J. Wickham.