THE BIBLE IN MY LIFE March 19, 2007 Issue

LESSONS FROM MRS. WOLFE

ROBERT HOLCOMB

WHEN I WAS A LITTLE BOY, I went to a Christian Science Sunday School. I'm sure I was one of the most difficult pupils. I did things like climb under the table to disrupt the class. But I had some wonderful teachers. And the most memorable one was Mrs. Wolfe.

She taught me Bible stories. I learned about Noah and the ark, for instance. That put me in good stead when our town was deluged by heavy, steady rains. I was about four years old at the time. After many days and nights of rain—I'm sure it wasn't 40 days and nights, but to me it seemed like that many—the police came to our door late one night and said we had to evacuate because the floods were going to overflow our house. I remembered that Noah and his family were saved because they loved and obeyed God. I can recall thinking that my family loved and obeyed God, too. I thought the same trust in God's goodness that saved Noah ought to save us. I don't recall being afraid. I had sensed something of Spirit and its everywhereness. From Mrs. Wolfe's teaching in Sunday School, I had learned that Spirit was one of the Biblical synonyms for God. I surely knew the answer to the Psalmist's question to God, "Whither shall I go from thy spirit?" (Ps. 139:7). You can't get away from Spirit, because God is everywhere, omnipresent.

Next morning the police came to take us back home. When we arrived, we found that the water had never come into the house. It had come only to the threshold of the door. A row of hedges across the front of the property had even filtered out the silt, so that our lawn and bushes were completely free of muddy residue.