Snippets - God's House

My feet dangled over the edge of the wooden pew. This was my first trip to God’s house. The grown-ups knelt on the red padded kneelers. My father knelt up straight. Others slumped their rumps against the pew. Most of the grown-ups watched something up front, but I was too small to see anything except the ceiling that arched high above. It was covered with paintings of men and women and flying babies and angels all in robes and barefoot . I liked the Roman soldiers with their shields and spears, their red skirts and golden helmets. Archangels with great white wings flew here and there, blew trumpets, waved swords. God sat in the center on his heavenly throne that rested on puffy clouds. He was surrounded by all the saints, apostles and disciples, and on either side were Jesus and His Mother. A shining white pigeon hovered over God. Everyone but the soldiers had little gold plates behind their heads. God was a huge old man who looked like Santa Claus. God had bare feet too. I wondered if He had to cut his toenails. My mother cut mine, which I didn’t like. God didn’t have a mother, but Mary was Jesus’s mother so maybe she cut God’s toenails. My father read from a little black book while the lady next to me fingered her beads and muttered. Then they all stood up and God’s voice boomed out and told a story about Jesus. When the story was over they all sat down and God started scolding everyone for not being good enough. I still couldn’t see Him, but the grown-ups could. Most of them gazed toward the front of the church but many stared at their hands or the floor instead. Some peeked at others. All the while God was warning them what might happen, they blew their noses, coughed, and fidgeted. After a while God said the women’s club would meet on Tuesday night at 8, and that Bingo would be held in the school auditorium at the usual times.