Daily Reflections ...

One day, St Augustine was walking along the seashore, trying to find the words he needed to describe the reality of God as the Trinity. His words were failing him, even though he knew that everything he had written to date about the Trinity was true. He was encountering the fact that our words about God will always pale into insignificance beside the reality that is God.

Augustine saw a young boy working on a hole in the sand with a tiny spoon. He stood and watched for a while as the boy went backwards and forwards to the sea, bringing the water he could put into his spoon back to the hole to fill it up.

Intrigued, Augustine asked him what he was doing. ‘Trying to put the sea into the hole’, the boy replied. ‘But you cannot do that,’ said Augustine. ‘No matter how hard you try, the sea won’t fit in there’.

‘And neither will you ever be able to use your words to describe the reality of the Trinity,’ said the boy. And he disappeared.

We will never get the sea into the hole we have made for it. Attempts to try will inevitably leave us unsatisfied, feeling inadequate and possibly knocked over. None of us is exempt from this experience. Isaiah struggles with feeling inadequate and unsure. Jesus considers what it means to be part of something that will cost him everything.

But all is not lost. You cannot put the sea into a child’s spoon, but you can put the spoon into the sea.

We have dug the hole we call our lives and ask God to fill it for us. He holds back, waiting for us to understand that we are to throw ourselves into him instead of waiting for him to pour himself into us.

by Shane Dwyer