Before the Beginning…

Before time began there was nothing but the unchanging God… there was a Family.

God the Father was, is and forever will be omnipotent (infinite, without limits, all powerful), omniscient (all knowing), omnipresent (always everywhere), Truth, Beauty and Goodness.  The Father’s idea of Himself, or His one-word expression of Himself, is not just an idea or a word.  It is His Son.

God’s ideas and words are real in the most real way; in the most perfect way.  So, the Father’s idea of Himself is His Son, who is equal to the Father in every way.  In a perfect act of self-giving love the Father gives all of Himself to the Son, holding nothing back, while still having all of Himself left over, because the Father is infinite.  The Son is God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God.

There never was a point where there wasn’t the Son.  The Father always had an idea of Himself.  So, the Son has always been and will always be.

In return, the Son, in a perfect act of self-giving love, gives all of Himself back to the Father, holding nothing back, while still having all of Himself left over, because the Son is infinite.  This perfect exchange of self-giving love between the Father and the Son is also a Divine Person – God the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son and is equal to them in every way.  The Father and the Son, in a perfect act of self-giving love, gives all of Themselves to the Holy Spirit.  In return, the Holy Spirit, in a perfect act of self-giving love, gives all of Himself back to the Father and the Son, holding nothing back, while still having all of Himself left over, because the Holy Spirit is infinite

There never was a point where there wasn’t the Holy Spirit, because there never was a point where the Father and Son did not love.

Then, in the beginning, God chose to create.

After God created time, the universe and all the plants and animals on Earth, God chose to create man.  The 26th verse of the first book of the Bible, Genesis, tells us about that.  “God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…’”

Jesus would not reveal the Trinity to mankind for thousands of years, but here we have the Blessed Trinity revealing Themselves in a different way.  The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are talking to Each Other.  “Let US make man in OUR image, after OUR likeness.”

So, how did God do this?  Genesis 1:27 tells us, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”  God made us in His image, the image of a family… the image of The Family.  In doing so God was showing us our purpose – we are to love like He does.  The model for this is in marriage.  All of mankind are meant to look at married couples to see an image and likeness of God and His love – husbands and wives giving of themselves fully, holding nothing back.

God married the couple He made and gave them the first commandment God ever gave, “And God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it”  In other words, God commands man and woman in marriage to love each other in such a complete way that when they come together and give of themselves to each other in marriage, similar to the Father and the Son’s self-giving love, the love of the husband and wife is a person – their child.  Each one of us, with our parents, were created to be in the image and likeness of the Trinity – a family.