Our Sunday School lesson was from John 3, the story about Nicodemus trying to understand Jesus’ assertion that he must be born again of the Spirit. This was a hard teaching for an adult to grasp even with Jesus as the teacher, yet it is a pivotal Christian doctrine. My mind travelled back to a trip to Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles where I noticed John 3:16 signs held above the crowds gathering to watch the enormous annual Halloween parade. People pushed past, ignoring offered Christian literature, their attention focused on the present buzz.

The group of elementary-aged children in my Sunday school class are equally focused on their “now”—their present buzz. They chat about Justin Bieber’s new movie, take pics with their iPod cameras, giggling and wiggling as I set up to teach the lesson.

I talk about our body, soul, and spirit. The body was easy for the children to identify, that physical form they bathe, dress, feed, exercise, and rest each day. And the concept about soul and humanity—our thoughts, emotions and actions—was grasped quickly. When does a child learn that a heart represents love, not the organ moving blood within their chest?

We moved on to define spirit, spiritus or breath. How can one identify something often hidden by our focus on the physical and emotional aspects of life? Even some religious institutions have squelched the inner spirit with an over-emphasis on rules, physical appearance, and in preying on emotions—namely fear and guilt—in an effort to control people. Prayers come easy when we have a physical need, but what happened to that awareness of the breath of God which brought life and a day by day spiritual relationship with mankind in the Garden of Eden?

Spirit . . . the God-sized hole in our being, the part of us that longs to connect to God whether we recognize it or not. To whom do we give control of our conscience and intuition? What speaks to us and with whom do we commune when all is silent or when we observe the vastness and beauty of the earth and the heavens? What sustains us when body and soul are assaulted by the inevitable decline brought by age and illness?

We made valentines and  heart cookies with “God-sized” holes in them (filled with jam). Jesus taught with simple illustrations. My children grasped the lesson at the child level where faith is found. I pray it sticks, like the jam on their fingers and table, and sustains them as they grow.

Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life”  John 3:5,6