The Three-in-One Garden

In the garden behind the church, there were three trees that grew so close together their branches wove into one another. Father Marcus pointed them out to the children one Sunday morning. "Does anyone know why these three trees are called the Trinity Trees?" Young Hannah raised her hand. "Because they're one tree?" "Close," Father Marcus said. "Three trees, but one root. Three trunks, but one light falls on all of them. Three names — Father, Son, Holy Spirit — but one God." Thomas frowned. "But how can three be one?" Father Marcus knelt down to their level. "Think about love," he said. "You can love your mother. You can love your friend. You can love God. That's three loves — but they're all the same love, aren't they? Love is one thing, but it lives in three places." The children thought about this. "Or light," Hannah added slowly. "Through a window, light comes in from everywhere. But it's all the same light." Father Marcus smiled. "Yes. Exactly like that." That afternoon, Hannah sat in the garden looking at the three trees. She put her hand on the trunk of the first tree. Then the second. Then the third. They all felt the same — the same rough bark, the same warmth from the sun. Three trees. One root. She thought about God — Father, Son, and Spirit. Three Persons, one God. And all of them loving her the same way, all at once, like the light coming through the window. She closed her eyes and felt it — the three loves that were one love, reaching her from every direction at once.