Since the human race began, man has always tried to come to some understanding of God. Our current understanding of God is an accumulation of the thoughts of millions and millions of men who have been working on this concept throughout the existence of mankind. We can deduce from artifacts and relics that even before men learned to write, they were trying to come to an understanding of God. Many people today believe in one God. But there are some people in the world who don't believe in any god and some people who still believe in many gods.

Abraham believed in one God who cared for him personally and protected him even though almost everyone else in the world at that time believed in many gods.

In reality it is up to each individual person to make up his own mind and make his own discoveries and conclusions about God. In reality this has always been so even though it was dangerous to say so. Throughout the ages, to avoid conflict, most people kept what they truly believed to themselves.

In the United States of America each person is free to decide for himself how he will think about God and how he will worship him or he can even openly decide not to worship him at all. This tolerance for differing opinions about God and about his nature is something new in the world. Mankind has inhabited the earth for thousands of years but this tolerance has only existed for less than three hundred years and even so it has never existed on the entire earth. Today this tolerance is found in less than half the earth. Be glad if you live in a country that allows you to express what you truly believe about God.

No matter what you think about God, one thing is for certain. Your understanding of God is inadequate. God is a mystery greater than the mere human mind can comprehend.

As we grow older and think about it more, our understanding of God changes and our understanding of God grows. But even then we are always sure about one thing. We are always sure that our understanding is inadequate. In order to really understand God we would have to be God.

Jesus tried to give us a glimpse into the inner personal life of God when he taught his apostles about the Holy Trinity. We are used to seeing each human being having only one person. It is difficult for us to comprehend how there could be a single being but with three persons. Many preachers have tried to explain how God can be one God and still be three persons. Saint Patrick used the shamrock in his explanation. Other preachers use other similes. The explanation that I personally like the best is the one below:

God is the creator of everything in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible. In the book of Genesis, God tells Moses, "I am who am." God is telling Moses that God's very nature is to exist. Not only did God create everything, God also continually holds it in existence.

How does God create?
When a man creates something he first imagines it in his mind and, if he wants it to become real, he must think about it some more and then perform the physical acts necessary to bring his creation into existence.

When God creates something, He imagines it in his mind but God's imagination is so strong and so perfect that the creation immediately exists. God creates simply by thinking about his creation and wanting it to be real.

Does God create something and then forget about it?
When God creates something He continues to hold it in his mind and continues to be aware of it. Jesus said God is even aware of every individual hair on our heads. God not only gives everything in creation a beginning; He also continues to hold his creation in existence by being continually aware of it. We say God knows everything. God is all-knowing, all the time. This means that God is intimately and completely aware of everything --- all the time. If God were to stop being aware of a particular thing, that particular thing would immediately cease to exist.

Where do we learn about the Holy Trinity?
The concept of God as having three persons is not found in the Old Testament books of the Bible. The idea of three persons in one God was a new teaching brought to us by Jesus Christ himself. You can read about it in the New Testament of the Bible. Christians believe in the Holy Trinity.

Is God aware of Himself? Because God is all-knowing, He also knows Himself. God is aware of Himself. The Bible says:

Who is the third person of the Holy Trinity?
We call the first person of the Holy Trinity, "God the Father." We call the second person of the Holy Trinity, "God the Son." Because God the Father and God the Son are all-knowing, They also know and are aware of each other. (We say they "look" at each other.) As God the Father and God the Son "look" at each other, They immediately appreciate and love each other. Their love for each other is so strong and so clear and so complete that another person is immediately generated. We call this third person the Holy Spirit. We say the Holy Spirit is the spirit of love.

How do we know this?
We get this glimpse into the inner life of God through the teachings of Jesus Christ. Jesus commanded his apostles to "Go forth and teach all nations; baptizing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy spirit." (Matthew 28:19)

And so we have a Creator God who is all-knowing and all-loving. God is always aware of everything. God's thoughts immediately create reality. So as God is aware of Himself then three persons are continually, eternally, and perpetually generated. And we have only one God but with three persons. This is my favorite way of trying to understand the Holy Trinity. But we must always remember that God is a mystery that is beyond our complete understanding. We must also keep in mind that that our human understanding of God is always limited and inadequate.