God and the Apple

While I was eating lunch one day in the teacher’s lounge, I overheard an office aide talking with her friend. The office aide could not understand how God could be God and Jesus at the same time—how He could be in heaven and on Earth at the same time! Her friend didn’t know how to respond.

I asked God to give me the words to help them understand this difficult concept, and the Lord, being gracious, brought an idea to my mind. So, feeling confident, I got up from my table and went to tell them about God and an apple.

I started by explaining how an apple has a core (from which the apple comes to be), an inside white part, and an outer peel that makes up the skin of the apple. I then explained that God the Father is like the core of the apple; all things are created from Him. God the Holy Spirit is like the white part of the apple; He comes to live inside us at the point of salvation and gives us guidance. God the Son, Jesus, is like the outside of the apple; He took on a human “peeling” to show us that He experienced the same sufferings and temptations that we do. Yet He remained blameless. So Jesus, in human peeling, took our blame and sin so that we could be blameless in the Father’s sight.

As coaches, we often have teachable moments like these that allow us to help our players and colleagues understand Christian truths. Thankfully, the idea about the three parts of an apple was just what I needed that day to explain how God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, and God the Son are one!