This past Sunday we marked the annual consideration of the Trinity in the liturgical calendar. It is a holy day that is often misunderstood both inside and outside the Christian tradition. For, quite frankly, the Trinity is called a holy mystery for a reason.

Nevertheless, it remains one of my all-time favorite parts of who we are as a people. And here is why: the Trinity is our bedrock belief, as Christians, that our God is perfect community. Communion. Relationship. That our God chooses to never be alone. To love and be loved, by God’s own self. That is who and what the Trinity is.

And as wonderful as that is, that is not the best part. The best part is that we are made in their image. The image of the three-in-one, to love and be loved. To live in community. Communion. Relationship. To never be alone.

Now, ours is far from perfect. For ours is human. Fallible. Fallen. We mess it up – all the time.

We judge one another about everything.

We hold onto a past that we wish we could go back to, one that will never return.

We expect each other to fit some mold of impeccable flawlessness that we ourselves have concocted and then berate one another when we fall short.

***And make no mistake, these things happen as a society, as well as individually.

Nevertheless, God has set the true mold we are meant to seek. The way we do that is by remembering in whose image we are made. Not only you or me. But all of us. Every single person. When we begin to see others through the eyes of the God who fearfully and wonderfully made us in love, it slowly but surely alters our way of interacting with one another. Eventually, love becomes our way of life. And that kind of love will change the world.

So remember the Trinity. Or if that is to much, remember that you were made for love. Real, reckless, relentless, remarkable Love.

The rest, well, the rest will begin to fall into place when we start there.

Love is patient, love is kind, it isn’t jealous, it doesn’t brag, it isn’t arrogant, it isn’t rude, it doesn’t force its own way, it isn’t irritable, it doesn’t keep a record of complaints, it isn’t happy with injustice, but it is happy with the truth. Love puts up with all things, trusts in all things, hopes for all things, endures all things. Love never faiths.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8a, CEB