GOD
A strange little title we have given to stand for the ineffable Name of the One it represents.
God.
Outside of me. Before me. Apart from me. Permeating creation. Breathing within it. Separate from it, and yet intrinsically connected with it. Untouchable, infinite, eternal.
Jesus.
Outside of me. A person who existed within time. Before me. Apart from me. Born into creation. Separate from it, and born within it. Breathing air. Touchable, finite, temporal.
God chose to be born into the created world. The outside-of-us, before-us, untouchable, intimate, and eternal "God" was made present and intimate.
He talked a lot about his Father, and told his listeners that they were correct in calling him "Son of God." He seemed to indicate that God was a person, or more accurately "persons," since he himself was God and had a Father named God. He knew this would be confusing, and since he didn't want to walk around being addressed only as "God" or "God 2" he asked us to please call him Jesus.
He found the term "God" an inadequate term for describing this Person who was his Father (kind of like addressing a person by their job title), and asked us to please call this Person "Dad." That was a little more intimate.
Then there was this other Person we were to call the Holy Spirit, which has something to do with the special bond between Dad God and Jesus God being the embodiment of Love Itself, and that when we participate in this Love we are taking part in the very Life of Father God and Jesus God.
But I guess that's a whole 'nother story.
