God Is Bad at Math

Photo by Roman Mager on Unsplash

A while back, as I was getting ready for Trinity Sunday, I was thinking about the idea that there is only one God: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. If you put that belief into a math formula, I guess it would look something like this:

1 (Father) + 1 (Son) + 1 (Spirit) = 1 (God)

You probably noticed the problem here. 1+1+1 does not equal 1. It’s not good math. (Suddenly, I’m imagining that Barbie from the 90s that got Mattel into so much trouble for complaining “Math class is tough!” Except the Barbie is God.)

But as I was getting ready for Trinity Sunday and pondering this bad math, I had a realization: Math has never been God’s strong suit.

From Gideon’s 300 men against 135,000 Midianites to the five loaves of bread and two fish to feed 5,000 people, to the Trinity—one God: the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—God’s always been bad at math.

But God’s struggle with that always ends up revealing his power and his love more clearly than before. I think that’s because math works with strict limits and dependable rules, but God’s power towards you and love for you are unlimited and unruly.

When God chooses to provide, God will provide, and when God chooses to deliver, God will deliver, no matter what the math says.

Our God is so full of love, that our one God is three persons eternally loving each other and looking for others to love, too—never mind the rules for addition.

Math just doesn’t capture who God is or what God does.

So yeah, the Lord struggles with math. That’s because the Lord does not, will not, cannot struggle to love you and care for you. God’s heart and God’s power defy every equation and formula, every expectation and everything that makes sense.

Our units can’t even measure them. “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him.” (Ps 103:11)

Our concepts can’t even comprehend them. “I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power… to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge.” (Eph 3:18-19)

Christian, today, instead of taking inventory of your needs and challenges or tallying up all of your sins and failures, remember who your God is and rest easy in the immeasurable, unknowable, incalculable love and care of the Lord.

Reading is hard, too. Listen to this devotional right here: