A Lesson on the Three-In-One

            Archibald Lang Fleming, in his book Archibald the Arctic, writes: “On Trinity Sunday I preached at the morning service and Pudlo [one of his Eskimo preachers] was to speak at the afternoon service.  After my midday meal I had just begun to read when there was a knock at my door and Pudlo entered.  In his very direct way he said that he did not understand how there could be three-in-one.  Was it that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were a family of three?... We knelt together and prayed God to guide us into a knowledge of this truth.  As we arose from our knees my eye caught sight of some artificial roses in a vase and in that moment I felt our prayer had been answered.

            Taking one of the roses, I gave it to Pudlo to examine, explaining that it had form but was not like an Arctic poppy; that it had color which was  quite different from the wild heather; and that it also had smell.  (I explained that because it was made of cloth the perfume had to be sprinkled on and that real roses that grew in the lands far to the south had their own fragrance.)  To these statements Pudlo readily agreed.  I then asked: Is the form the rose?  No. Is the color the rose?  No.  Is the smell the rose?  No.

            Yet, I pointed out, these three—form, color, and smell—together make up the complete flower and no one of the three is more important than the other.  Again, I said, in the white man’s country it is common to have many roses in vases in the houses where we live.  When you come in at the door you know because of the sweet perfume that there are roses in the house even when you don not see them.  So it is with God the Holy Spirit.  We don’t see God but we know he is near.  If we follow Jesus, then the Spirit speaks to our hearts and we do the thing that is right.  Pudlo’s face lighted up with a smile and he said “How wonderful!”

            And in that afternoon service Pudlo pleaded with his people to follow only the Great Spirit who is “from everlasting to everlasting”—since now they had been given His Holy Spirit to guide them day by day.