Two's Company; Three is ...?

What begins with S, and is found in almost every newspaper you pick up? 

Forget about all the political claims and counter-claims; in the last decade or so, in a variety of formats, the Sudoku challenge has quietly conquered the nation.  Nine numbers in nine spaces, nine times; all you have to do is miss the ones that are already there.  There isn’t even the need to make them add up to anything: no calculation is involved!   The principle is so simple, yet so addictive.  I wonder how many man-hours this little square absorbs each day?

Simple it may be, but Sudoku can be far-reaching in its application, for doesn’t it reflect the very nature of life?  Life itself is a mixture: I’m sure each of us can think of nine different components – and more – that make it up.  For a happy and contented life these components have to be in balance: some of each, and not too much of any one of them, rather like each line and box of the completed Sudoku puzzle.  Some food, for example, is essential, but too much causes indigestion and obesity.  St Paul counselled a little wine for the stomach (1Tim. 5:23), but there is condemnation of drunkenness (1 Peter 4:3); and while laziness is to be discouraged, “all work and no play …”

It may be a contrived symbolism, but notice, too, that the Sudoku square is divided into threes: three squares by three; three smaller squares by three in each larger one.  In the church calendar, last Sunday was Trinity Sunday, when we marked especially the fact that our faith is Trinitarian.  Not three gods, but three distinct components of one God, seeing Him as Father, Son and Holy Spirit ... respectively the creator of the universe, the redeemer of mankind and the counsellor present within every believer. 

It’s easy to look at the state of world affairs and be discouraged.  It is important to  remember the balance of life, both international and personal, and see the good as well as the bad, to recall the presence of our triune God in it all.  We’re not alone.  In one of His final moments on this earth, Jesus said to His disciples, “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matt. 28:20).  This wasn’t just a parting comfort to those few, who had spent years with Him in Palestine and now would see Him no more. 

If we look back to the beginning of Matthew’s gospel, we find lots of genealogies but, at the end of his first chapter, he gives the meaning and promise that Jesus came to fulfil.  Centuries earlier, the prophet Isaiah had told the people, “Look!  The virgin will conceive and bear a son, and they will call him Emmanuel” which means ‘God with us’ (Isaiah 7:14, Matt. 1:23).

Next time you pick up a paper and turn to the puzzle page – perhaps in frustration or despair – look at the Sudoku square and remember those three words, ‘God with us”.