This past weekend marked Trinity Sunday on the church calendar. So naturally I thought of fractals.

What, that doesn't seem natural to you?

The Holy Trinity is possibly the most obscure thing a Christian ever has to explain. Most Christians don't even understand it themselves. And I can't offer a completely convincing description myself, but I do see something of an illustration in the fractal set known as the Sierpinski Triangle.




See how it's drawn? You start with an equilateral triangle (that is, one where all three sides are equal), then draw lines connecting the midpoints of the sides. You get three little triangles with a hole in the middle. Draw lines connecting the midpoints of the sides on those three little triangles, and you get three more sets of three triangles with holes in the middle. Keep going forever, and you have a Serpinski Triangle. Program it on a computer, and no matter how far you zoom in, it will always look the same. It is self-similar, which is a common feature in fractal sets.

So now we get back to the Holy Trinity - the Three in One and One in Three. Just like the Sierpinski Triangle. It also illustrates how an infinite God capable of creating the universe can still interact personally with every one of us. Self-similarity. No matter how minutely you zoom in on one area, it still looks exactly like the whole.

Okay, I already told you it wasn't a completely convincing description, but it works for me.

I've come to some conclusions about religion and spirituality over the years. First and foremost is the idea that since all religions - including my own - are human inventions, they are thus all just approximations. No amount of human effort can attain perfect and complete knowledge of an infinite God. This is not to say that "all roads lead to God," but rather that God is able to steer any road to Himself, if the traveler on that road is willing. My particular faith community and traditions work for me, but other people may need different imagery or a different narrative. Which ones are "right" and which ones are "wrong?" How would I know? But if I had to guess, I would say that those who favor compassion over judgment, forgiveness over resentment and humility over selfishness are on the right track.

The second conclusion I've reached is that the universe reflects the nature of God, and shows us a God who is more imaginative than we can even imagine. I remember reading a book sometime around 1980, where the author claimed that humanity would discover and understand all the laws of the physical universe within the next hundred years. Then the first pictures of Saturn came in from the Voyager space probes, showing us complex weirdness no one had even dreamed was possible happening out there. I imagined God laughing and saying, "Oh, so you think you'll get it all figured out, do you? Well, explain this!"

And third, I'm getting a sense for how I'm supposed to "be a witness" for God in the world. Back during the unfortunate three years when I tried being an Evangelical, that was a very big deal. There were entire books written about how to share the Gospel with people, sales pitches for Jesus. I was never comfortable with that. My approach is a lot more subtle, and my goal is a lot less concrete. I figure that if something I do - through my music, through my writing, through my photography or just through my life in general - if something in my life inspires someone to open themselves up to spirituality in their own lives, that will be enough. God can take care of the rest. I don't have to do His job for Him - which is good, because I can't. He knows just the right way to reach out to every individual. I certainly don't.

Yes, I'm weird. I know that. But you've got to admit that Sierpinski Triangles are more interesting to talk about than people's bathroom phobias, don't you?