The Trinity

    I am writing a book of stories from my life.  It is called "Grandma's Stories."  Following is one of the stories from that book.

The Trinity

 

When I was growing up, Primary was held on a weekday after school.  But in the summer, it was held on a weekday morning.  I remember one summer morning when the neighborhood kids had gathered to play on our front lawn under our big pine tree.  Actually, I think it was just me and Joan and Billy Balding, our neighbor that lived across the street.  Billy was an active member of a protestant church.  I don’t remember the name of it, but their building was right by my dad’s office -Church of Christ? Maybe.  Next door to Billy lived the pastor of his church.  They were a very nice couple.  And next to door to me lived our bishop- the Blackers.  So, can you picture it?  Two homes where members of our church lived exactly across the street from two homes where members of The Church of Christ lived.

Joan, Billy and I were sitting under the pine tree in our front yard and we told Billy we were going to Primary in a few minutes.  He asked what that was and that started a discussion about religion.  I’m not sure how we got on the subject, but Billy asked what we believed about the Godhead- or trinity, as he put it.  We told him that God, the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost were three separate beings.  We even quoted the first article of faith.  He argued that no, they were one being.  They were the holy trinity- three in one.  We argued back and forth, then decided we couldn’t solve it.  “Let’s ask the adults.”  Surely, they would know.

  We first went to the Blacker’s house.  Lily (Mrs. Blacker) answered the door.  With no preamble, we asked our question, “Are God, the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost three separate beings?”  She looked very surprised and kind of laughed and said, “Yes, they are three separate beings.”  “Thank you,” we said. 

We then marched across the street and knocked on Billy’s pastor’s door.  His wife answered.  We asked her the same question.  She too was surprised, but answered, “They are all one being.”  As we walked away, we were very bewildered.  Not even the adults knew for sure?  I have never forgotten this.  We went on playing together and, as far as I can remember, the subject never came up again.  But I have never forgotten my introduction to the fact that not all adults knew and believed the same things.