18 Westminster Catechisms by Abigail Moore On Tuesday afternoons, we recite our Westminster catechisms to Mrs. Foster in our second-grade hallway. I repeat the line over and over again as she glares down at me, “God is a spirit and does not have a body like men.” I feel my stomach flip every time I say it. Mrs. Foster told us Jesus died on the cross for our sins. I picture him as a Crayola stick figure suspended helplessly on a construction paper cross. “Can you see God?” she questions. “No, I cannot see God, but he always sees me.” My face goes red. Mom told me the teachers lie sometimes. Mrs. Foster said that Moses and Abraham and Adam and Eve saw God. She said Jesus was God too, but my best friend Hope told me pictures of Jesus were idols and always covered them up during Bible class with heart-shaped sticky notes. “Where is God?” the last question of the day. “God is everywhere,” but I can’t see him. Mrs. Foster gives me a gold star sticker and releases me from her examination and back to computer class. Later that day I asked Miss Hathaway if she could see God, and she exclaimed, “Of course you can! He’s everywhere. Just look around. He’s everywhere!” But I couldn’t see him. So, I squinted at the words in my red-letter Bible, repeating L-O-R-D, L-O-R-D, LORD, LORD as if my breath alone would make him appear out of thin air, the way my brother said he did on the night he saw God.
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