A teacher of young children sows many seeds over time, hoping they will take root and flourish in hearts and minds. It is a great pleasure and privilege to be a part of those moments when faces light up with excitement and the long-awaited bloom of understanding bursts forth. Those moments are often unexpected and can be a great encouragement to students, revealing to them the extent of their knowledge and the power of a good memory brimming over with songs, poems and scriptures. 

One morning in early January, I wrote Isaiah 61:1 on the white board so that students could write it in their Memory Books. “The Spirit of the LORD God is upon Me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.” The children came in quietly and got busy writing and illustrating pictures of prisoners being released and pastors preaching the Gospel. The second grade teachers had chosen to memorize this scripture because of the way we could use it to bring together our studies of the life of Joseph and the life of Christ.

To begin Morning Prayers, I sang “Lord Jesus Christ, Be Present Now”. It is the cue for students to put their things away and come sit down on the rug. We sing the first verse as a way of asking God’s blessing on our time of prayer and devotion, but it was the last verse that caught my attention:

“Lord Jesus Christ, be present now,
Our hearts in true devotion bow.
Your Spirit send with grace divine,
And let Your truth within us shine.

“Glory to God, the Father, Son,
And Holy Spirit, Three in one.
To You, O blessed Trinity,
Be praise throughout eternity.”
-Anonymous

Having written the verse and sung the hymn, something suddenly clicked for me and I said to my class, “Oh, look! The Trinity–it is in the first line of our memory work. Isn’t that exciting? I hadn’t noticed that before!” I pointed to the line and read it aloud, “The Spirit of the LORD GOD is upon Me”. Isaiah wrote these words, prophesying about Christ. When Christ came, He said these words were fulfilled by Him. In this line, we see the Spirit, God the Father, and the Christ (Me) plainly.

Several students nodded in understanding, but someone asked, “What is the Trinity?” I took up the small white board next to my seat and while I drew an ancient church symbol, I sang to them a song of explanation: 

The Lord our God is one–
Father, Spirit and Son.
And yet, the Lord our God is three,
The blessed Trinity…

Through all eternity
God, the one in three,
And all are equal in power and glory,
The blessed Trinity…

The Father is God,
Jesus is God,
The Spirit is God,
They are three in one…
by Judy Rogers

We talked about this symbol and I asked if anyone knew the Latin word “non”. One student asked if it was the same word in “Non nobis, domine”, a song we like to sing meaning, “Not unto us, O Lord, but unto Your name be the glory”. We are training children to make connections and I was glad to see them putting things together! 

I explained that “Deus” meant “God”. They had no idea what the ‘P’ at the top could possibly mean. I told them to remember that the words here were in Latin, so ‘P’ stands for ‘Pater’ or Father. If ‘Pater’ was ‘Father’, what did they think ‘Mother’ would be? They guessed ‘Mater’ right away.  ‘Spiritus’ for the ‘Spirit’ came easily to them, but ‘Filius’ for the Son made no sense at all. I told them about our English word, filial, to describe the love between friends and brothers. “Oooohhhh,” they all said, in such a way as to demonstrate that of course that word would be used to describe Christ and His love for us. From there we read the symbol around the edge saying, “The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Spirit, the Spirit is not the Father”. Then we read each line toward the center saying, “The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Spirit is God”. 

We continued talking about the words, letters, and their meanings. We discussed words related to Trinity like triangle and tricycle. We contrasted the Trinity with the gods of the ancient Egyptians we had studied earlier in the year. They asked more great questions, like “How can the Trinity exist if God has no body?”

Geneva students frequently ask such great questions:  “When did math begin?” “Can kids have covenants?”, showing us that their hearts are open and tender to receive instruction.  Lessons like this one about the Trinity cause me to give thanks for those who encourage an environment which allows for such meaningful discussions, especially with young children. The time and effort of many people over many years bore fruit in this lesson on the Trinity. Someday, God willing, my work will, too.

Mary Chris Rowe has taught second grade at Geneva since 2004.