Firestarter

Fire needs three things to burn: air, fuel and heat. When you build a fire you have the air surrounding you, fuel usually in the form of paper and wood, and matches. For me, building a fire in the wood stove is a pretty easy process. I grab kindling and wood from the piles I have, pick up a piece of newspaper and strike a match.

The three components of a fire remind me of the Trinity. Its actually a pretty good analogy. Our God is a Triune God. He's not just Father, or Son or even Holy Spirit. Just like you can never have a fire if you don't have each part, God is all three and it takes each aspect to show us the One True God.

For fun I have matched up the three parts of a fire with the three parts of the Trinity.Its easy to align the Holy Spirit with fuel...The Holy Spirit is the dunamis, the power to live the walk we are called to. I have a much harder time with Jesus and the Father. I can compare Jesus with heat for He is the one who has made it possible to come into relationship with God just like I associate the match with the thing that starts the fire. Jesus' death and resurrection lit the flame of God fire in my life. So that leaves the Father as air... Air provides the right environment for fire to burn. A match put to wood in a vacumn would not light. God's perfect love, Jesus' spark and the Holy's Spirit's fuel. That's one way to see it. Even as I write this, though, I can sense that my associations are imperfect. I can see each person of the trinity in a different role too. Perhaps that is why the Trinity is such a mystery to us...Distinct features or flavors to each part, yet each such an integral part of the other so that they can't really be divided. Even so, a fire, when is is burning can not at that moment be divided into its three parts or it would cease being a fire.