one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Ephesians 4:5,6
While Harry Nilsson wrote and originally recorded One, you probably remember Three Dog Night’s version[1]. After those haunting piano chords, it opens up with loneliness.
One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do
Two can be as bad as one
It's the loneliest number since the number one
Someone has said that we all stand and live alone. Yes, we might be surrounded by people. Friends, family, neighbors all surround us. But they are on the outside. They never get on the inside. So, in a sense, we are all truly lonely.
But that’s where God steps in. We were never made to be alone inside. We were made by God so that God could be with us inside. That deep, empty ache we all feel inside, that loneliness is a remembrance about how we were made for God. It’s a trail of cookie crumbs that point back, that take us back, to who God is, who we truly are, and our desperate need for him.
The “one’s” listed here all point back to our emptiness and need. One Lord, faith, baptism, God and Father, all retell the story of our creation in the image of God.
But baptism here is not the act of baptism here in this life. It speaks about our being placed into Christ. Our being fully submerged by God’s Holy Spirit when he placed us in Christ.
When we are put in Christ, no part of us is left out. Nothing stays outside of Christ. His Holy Spirit covers, fills, and washes each and every part of us. We are fully plunged into the depths and covered by God. He holds nothing back.
We have God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. But God is one.
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.
Deuteronomy 6:4
Each member of the Trinity is God.
The Father is God (John 6:27; Romans 1:7; 1 Peter 1:2).
The Son is God (John 1:1, 14; Romans 9:5; Colossians 2:9; Hebrews 1:8; 1 John 5:20).
The Holy Spirit is God (Acts 5:3-4; 1 Corinthians 3:16).
And if that wasn’t enough, He’s over all of us. He’s throughout all of us. He’s in all of us. The God of the universe is personally with us. His presence is all around us, all through us. The one that made us, the one that loves us, the one that died for us.
It’s overwhelming to think about. Words are all we have, but they are not enough to tell of his wonders, love, and grace.
Here is the God of the universe. And what does he do? He reaches out from heaven. He leans into us. He grabs hold of us. He saves us. He draws us close. He comes and lives in us. He surrounds us.
Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways!
Romans 11:33 NLT
The key word here is impossible. You can search, dig, sift, and look with all of your might, but you’ll still come up short. We’ll never be able to get our arms around who God is or his love for us. We can search all we want, but we will never discover fully who he is.
He will always, always, always, do the unexpected. And we don’t like that one little bit. He’s outside of our understanding. Outside of our control. And that makes us uncomfortable.
We want a God that we can maneuver to do what we want. To control. To obey our wishes. To fulfill our plans.
He is God. And we are not. And I’ve never been to thankful in my life for that great truth.
For more information on the Trinity, check out GotQuestions.org[2].
Noodling Questions
Where do you feel most alone? Why?
How difficult is it to believe that God is surrounding you? Why?
In what ways do you try to push God around? Into a corner?
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