Trinity Sunday

[Jesus said], 'For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.' John 3:16

Living for eternity

You – and I – are going into eternity. There are days when things go wrong, or we feel bad, when eternity is the last thing that concentrates our minds. Instead, we feel hemmed in, pressed down, by cares and worry. And there are those days when everything runs on wheels – yet so often again we forget about eternity: this time, because life here is pretty good.

And there are other days – such as Trinity Sunday – when we hear this best known, best loved verse, and its comfort washes over us and we go gently to the seventh heaven . . . but sooner or later we have to return to the mundane and to get on with this life; just think what we've got to get through this week . . . and will there be time . . . ? Before one can blink twice, we're worrying all over again.

'Let us live for eternity,' counselled J.C. Ryle. 'Oh, that men would live as those who may one day die! Here we are, toiling and labouring, wearying ourselves about trifles, and running to and fro like ants on a heap, yet after a few years we shall all be gone.

On the proving ground

It means consciously using our life here as a proving ground: learning to do best what we already do better (which is often what we like doing anyway), as a preparation for what is to come. A lady who had struggled to raise her six children as good Christians, on her death bed confessed to a friend: 'I've done what I could, but if only I could have my time over again, I'm sure I could do more! I feel I've only just learned how to bring up children in the faith!' Well, bless her, perhaps God is letting her do exactly that, somewhere in eternity.

Limitless love

We cannot limit God, or eternity, and if we ever feel like imposing our restrictions on either (as if we really could – but we do try), let's remember that this wonderful earth, with all its wonderful people (including us), is a very tiny part of our universe; and that our universe is a very tiny part of all the other universes, out there in the vastness of space.

Yet God so loved the folk on this little planet earth that he went to great lengths to give us the chance of eternity – except that, since God does nothing by chance, we only have to believe in Jesus to ensure our place in eternity.

In an interview to mark the evangelist's eightieth birthday, Sir David Frost asked Dr Billy Graham: 'Billy, what do you think you'll be doing in eternity?' And Billy laughed. 'My friends tell me I'll be out of a job,' he said. 'Cos they reckon there won't be a need for any preachers in heaven, but there's all those other worlds out there. I believe in eternity that the Lord will have plenty of work lined up for all of us – including preachers!'

Improving our talent

We sing, in one of our morning hymns:

Improve thy talent with due care,
For the great day thyself prepare.
[Bishop T. Ken]

Trinity Sunday isn't only for trying to understand how Three Persons can be One God, nor how those Three Persons inter-act. We cannot fully comprehend the Trinity – so let us accept it in faith. But we can 'improve our talent with due care', in preparation for eternity. We have a vested interest in eternity: we're heading straight for it, at the rate of sixty seconds a minute.

God is for us

But the Lord is on our side (Psalm 118:6; cf. Psalm 56).

God gives us a short testing now – and unending joy, love and peace in eternity. He prunes and trains first, for us to grow and blossom later. That's God's way: testing – then transformation, growth and delight. The world's way is pleasure now, and pay later. The world's way is to anaesthetize the person, then inflict the pain – and only when the anaesthetic wears off does the patient realize what he has let himself in for. God does not anaesthetize us. He requires us to meet what each day brings, in the full knowledge and awareness that he is on our side. That is protection enough. He wants us to meet Satan's onslaughts in full possession of the senses he has given us – and the greatest sense is the awareness of our Lord's proximity.

Suggested hymns

Eternal Ruler of the ceaseless round; Father of heaven, whose love profound; Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty; Three in One, and One in Three