"Hmm,but 0f what I kn0w between christian n islam is n0,we're n0t the same g0d, christian believe in 3 g0d n muslim is 0nly 1 allah/g0d.. S0, that's n0t the same kak diane:-)"
Well, now I was in a pickle, wasn't I. In the midst of a pleasant conversation with my Muslim friend, Spidey, about our shared love of the one true God/Allah, he had raised up the mysterious Christian concept of the Holy Trinity.
This idea is central to Christian beliefs, but it's also notoriously difficult to grasp. It's challenging enough for adults to wrap their minds around the idea that God is three distinct persons in one, but I've also had the honor and bewildering problem of trying to explain this notion to children. After multiple goes and a lot of trial and error, I've hit upon the following metaphor which works about as well as anything.
Imagine you have two red apples in front of you. They both look quite the same.
Now imagine taking a knife and cutting one of those apples in half, from top to bottom. What you see now is still an apple, but it looks a bit different. Looking at this cut side of the apple, you can see the tiny edge of the red outer layer, and you can also see all the white crispy part. At the very center, you can see the seeds too.
Is it fundamentally different from an uncut apple? Nope - even though it's been cut in two, it's still an apple, just as it was before.
So. In simplest terms, Christians see God as a cut apple. Muslims see him as Allah, the uncut apple.
How much does one single slice change our God?
In my heart and in my mind, this is what I believe: an apple is an apple. Let's live in peace.
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