Here is a mystery. There must be more than one for love to exist. Otherwise it must only be “self love” which is not love at all. Love begins with three (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) who are One. A table of two legs will not stand. A marriage, a Godly friendship, etc., of only two will not endure without love. Real love will not developed and endure without a third element. God is One, but also Three, creating perfect balance in relationship and function. Love is one, but with a multi-faceted outworking. Without two, there can be no relationship. Without three, there is no real completeness. Something is missing.
Can we see the reason God created us with the desire for children?
There is, deep down in most of us, the drive to want to project ourselves, to extend ourselves - to add to (two?). This has been built into us by God to set the stage for adding to His family (Genesis 1:28; 9:1). But this is also one reason so many marriages are out of balance - with only two, marriage can become a kind of contest, a tug of war, but with the third - children - there is set in motion an new dynamic, for there is now the opportunity for harmony and balance, even in the practical chaos of the new addition. Because husband and wife (who have become one) become "other oriented" toward the additional member.
Until there is a third, there is, technically, no “family“. Only two who have become one, but without a third element. This factor of the third element of relationship carries through to the spiritual, which is also God’s design for His great purpose. From the very beginning of the implementation of His earthly plan in mankinds creation, He was the Third element. In the garden, He walked and talked with the first two, until sin entered and broke up the perfect trinity relationship (Genesis 3:8-9). For some length of time, there was harmony, communication, perhaps even additional instruction and guidance by God to the first couple of two. But Jesus is continuing the pattern with converted couples today. While there is only two, there is three, if Jesus Christ is the center of their lives. There is again the element of the Third.
With three, there can always be an arbitrator with the a physical family - the third element with the two. The spiritual arbitrator is Jesus through the Spirit. There is an ever-present and loving Third party through whom is the answer to every difficulty, the administrator of all peace and love. God works according to patterns and types and antitypes. We may understand more of the mind of God in His creation by looking for these. There is no arbitrator within the Father, Son and Holy Spirit because none is needed - they are the perfect One. There is perfect unity, and above all, perfect love (1 John 4:8). When Jesus is the pivot of a marriage union, Jesus promises to be there in their midst - to be Third element that enables the positive answer to all prayers of the couple according to the harmony of their collective wills. It makes no difference who the two gathered together are. If they are united in Him, He will be there (Matthew 18:18-20). Anywhere there is two in His name, He is there. This is another part of the construction of God’s grand design (see previous article) for humanity and all creation.
This leads us to another glorious truth. When love is actualized, prayers are answered, and the continuance of God's program can become endless (John 13:34). The more offspring, the more love. The more love, the more children. It often works this way in physical families, and so it does in God's family. How many children will God have in His family? That is how much love there will be...and all will be One in Christ (John 14:23; 15:11; 17:22-23).
Love is Three...or more. Many more!
Some day all His children will comprehend fully the scope of Paul testamony to God’s inexpressible greatness when he says:
“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unfathomable (inscrutable, unreachable) are His judgments (His decisions)! And how untraceable (mysterious, undiscoverable) are His ways (His methods, His paths)! For who has known the mind of the Lord and who has understood His thoughts, or who has [ever] been His counselor? Or who has first given God anything that he might be paid back or that he could claim a recompense? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. [For all things originate with Him and come from Him; all things live through Him, and all things center in and tend to consummate and to end in Him.] To Him be glory forever! Amen (so be it)! - Romans 11:33-36 (AB)
Amen!