"Then Yahweh appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. So he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground, and said, My lord, if I have now found favour in your sight, do not pass on by your servant." (Genesis 18)Christians do not depict the first person of the Holy Trinity - God the Father. We rightly depict the Son. We also give artistic representation of the Spirit (generally, but not exclusively, as a dove). God the Father is not represented since the only image we have of Him is Jesus his only begotten son. It is an incredible thing that the Church does indeed have one icon which does indeed depict the three persons of the Holy Trinity. Well, not exactly. This icon is actually a depiction of Abraham's visitors at Mamre described in Genesis 18. I find this a very interesting and telling fact.
The Church's only accepted icon of the Trinity has at it's core the theme of hospitality. Hospitality, at least in its truest form, is the welcoming of strangers to be served as if they were Christ himself. Thus, any understanding of the mysterious Holy Trinity, of Divinity, must include hospitality. That is to say, that the nature of Divinity, if I may speak in such terms, involves a welcoming disposition. Is this not the Christian understanding of love? The love that we find in the three persons of the Godhead does not exclude. The Father loves the Son and loves the Spirit, the Son loves the Father and loves the Spirit, and the Spirit loves the Father and loves the Son. This community of mutual love, though, is not inwardly focused. It is the nature of their love to look outwards and share that love-overflowing with strangers and welcome them into the community. God is hospitable.
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