The Spirit of God

When I was a child my mother would send me out the door to a 10 AM Sunday school class at a church a block and a half from my home. The teacher proclaimed to me and the other children that God’s Spirit dwelled within each of us. I raised my hand. I was always courteous in class but I frequently asked difficult questions. With some trepidation the teacher acknowledged my hand and I asked the following question. Why do I need another human being to teach me about God or God’s word when God’s Spirit dwells in me? The teacher promised to search the scriptures and get back to me but never did. Sunday school class was dismissed shortly before 11 AM and my mother met me to go to the 11AM church service. While we sat in our pew the minister announced that everyone who did not believe what our church congregation believed would go to hell and burn like bacon for all eternity. I opened my worn King James Bible to a random page and my eyes were drawn to a verse that said “As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God” I held my finger under the verse and showed it to my mother who after reading quickly closed the Bible while my finger was still in it. I opened the bible to another page and put my finger under the words “And all flesh shall see the salvation of God” showed it to my mother who after reading closed the bible a little more forcefully than before. I have always been persistent so I opened the bible and put my finger beneath the verse “there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust” that time my mother ignored me but understood for the rest of her life that my grammatical subject was not religion. My grammatical subject was always the Spirit of God.