For all we’ve learned about the universe, some of its biggest mysteries remain unsolved. How did our moon form? Where did the water on Mars go? What exactly are dark matter and dark energy?
These are just some of the mysteries Astronomy magazine editor David Eicher explored in his 2024 article “10 Modern Mysteries of the Universe.” And no doubt, as research provides answers to some of these questions, those answers will raise a host of new questions along the way.
Life is full of mystery. The more we understand, the more we realize how little we know.
This illustrates an important principle: I don’t have to understand something fully in order to appreciate it or even use it. For example, I understand, in a general sense, how my vacuum cleaner works, but I'm not familiar with every component. Even if I were, I might not understand what each component does. But this doesn’t mean I can't plug it in and use it effectively to make my life a little cleaner.
In a similar way, when it comes to understanding God, we should recognize that we will never fully understand who He is. But that doesn't mean we cannot engage in a meaningful and real relationship with Him. In fact, we should expect that the Being who created all things, including the still-mysterious complexities of the human mind and body, would be far more complex than His creatures.
This means that having a relationship with God will always involve some mystery. The more we walk with Him, learn of Him and understand Him, the closer our relationship will become. But this does not mean we will ever be able to say we know Him fully. After all, knowing God is at the heart of eternal life. (See John 17:3.)
We can confidently accept what God has revealed about Himself, but we must be careful not to make dogma out of things He has not revealed.
Scripture describes God as a plurality. This notion is revealed in the Old Testament and becomes even more explicit in the New Testament.
The Bible teaches that the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit are God. Thus, there are three distinct, self-sufficient, coequal, fully divine Persons who make up the one God (the tri-unity).
Scripture also does not teach that there are degrees of divinity. There is no greater God or lesser God. There is only one God, and this God is three Persons.
The difficulty for us is that we often equate one being with one person because we intuitively think about human beings. Perhaps the best biblical example for helping us understand how something can be both one and more than one is marriage. Genesis tells us that the two “become one flesh,” Genesis 2:24. Two distinct individuals can, in a different sense, become one.
The doctrine of the Trinity is not logically contradictory, but exactly how God can be both one and three remains a mystery.
Thankfully, I don’t have to understand exactly how God is one and three to have a relationship with Him. Just as mysteries in the universe do not prevent us from exploring and appreciating it, the mystery of God does not prevent us from knowing, trusting, and loving Him.