When I was in elementary school/Sunday school G1d was this big white haired white guy....aka Zeus, Thor, Santa Claus...tossing plagues and lightening bolts, keeping the book of who's naughty and who's nice.
Garden of Eden was between the Tigris and Euphrates, science proved it.
Heaven was up there, Hell was down there, and even if it written in the bible it was H E double hockey sticks to us.
Charlton Heston was Moses and that Red Sea parting was amazing.
Some people's houses no card playing, no dancing on Sunday. My house after church Sunday was family day, we'd take a ride in the country at fifty cents a gallon and then play card games or board games and make pineapple upside down cake.
Gee, was short for gee whiz, which was short for Jesus, and deserved a whack upside the head, hauled down the hall by your ear and mouth washed out with soap. Mom said 'Darn it' if she got mad at us and then said "Pardon my French". That was all the French my mom knew, my dad knew a lot more and he spoke it fluently and didn't have to pardon his diction.
Jesus and G!d were distant but right here watching my every move....
.............
Today Jesus and G!d are family, the reed sea and midrash discussions open my eyes and ears to see and here. Hell and Heaven are choices, Genesis is a wonderful creation story...one of many and full of metaphor. We still play games on Sunday and it is still family day around my house. Me and my kids read the bible more, and discuss it more than I ever did as a kid. My kids know that they won't get reprimanded or their mouth washed out with soap for using the word Hell, but they prefer H E double hockey sticks and still have issues with reading books that have curse words.
Today rather than worrying about what Jesus or G!d may think about what I do or think, I'm just trying to keep up.
(I never did buy the walking on water, although am closer now than ever before)
