Once upon a time. And so begins every great tale. These are not dormant words. They are pregnant with the vigor and virility of a great saga about to burst forth into reality. All wait in anticipation of their indwelling potency to be revealed, like a baby’s first gasping of breath. They are the hopeful promise of every true and great story, able to enthrall the imagination with the tale about to unfold, extending beyond them like the trail of light from the dawning sun on the morning sea-waters. Hearts are about to be introduced. An adventure beyond imaging is about to evolve. Good will be pitted against evil, and our hero will have to fight through enemy territory to win the victory.
The great story of our lives is no different.
In the beginning. We are not yet in the beginning of our part in the drama. Our time has not yet come. We are in the beginning before all time. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning (John 1:1-2).
In the beginning, in the time before all time, God was present, absolute, alive, boundless, the Word Himself. He was creative, spirited, communicative, meaningful, as our understanding of the word “word” is itself. He shared and explored his deep heart through the expression of it. And He was not alone.
Dallas Willard explains that “God is in himself a sweet society of love, with a first, second, and third person to complete a social matrix where not only is there love and being loved, but also a shared love for another, the third person. “It is a home,” said Eugene Peterson, “ordered by Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” One translation of the Greek for “beginning” (archē) is “domain.” This was the domain of all enduring, sustaining, bounteous, abundant life: God Himself. The ancient Celts had another phrase for this sweet society they came home to. They simply referred to Him as “the Three of Our Love.”
