That’s what Janet asked me before Blossom could come in with the tea and try a more indirect approach to broach this subject after the two of them had just been praying for God to help them “share their faith in Jesus” when I just happened to knock on Phil and Blossom Woodrow’s front door peddling my stupid books and looking like a drowned rat.

“Well,” I said, “Jesus is God . . . become man . . . just to kind of see what it’s like. But, of course, we’re all “God.” I’m God. You’re God. So I guess, now that I think about it, God becoming a man to see what it’s like doesn’t make much sense, huh . . . IF we’re all God anyway, right? Maybe, I’m not so sure about Jesus. Maybe I don’t know that much about Him after all.”

Just then Blossom came in with the tea, and while we sipped it, I told them what I was doing in my summer job and where I was from. I left out the part about trying to make some money to buy a gun and a motorcycle so that I could move to California and make my living selling pot. THAT plan that I’d readily share with someone who I thought was “cool” didn’t seem like it needed to be mentioned with these two nice people.

Blossom was a beautiful Jamaican woman who was probably in her late twenties or early thirties, and she spoke with a gorgeous island accent. Her friend Janet was African-American and probably closer to my age of twenty years old. I later learned that Blossom was teaching Janet how to study the Bible and how to “share” her faith in Jesus Christ.

Although both of these women were beautiful, I wasn’t particularly attracted to either of them, which was a good thing, because, had I been so, I’d have been imagining them each one in their birthday suits and fantasizing about having sex with one or both of them, maybe even at the same time. Hey, I’m just being honest. Whether or not you know this about twenty year old young men, they DO think a lot about sex even during conversations about things more spiritual. If you ever happen to notice that they don’t seem to be paying attention to the conversation, there’s a good chance that THAT’s what they are thinking about.

But back to this particular conversation on that particular day with these two nice people who had invited me in out of the rain to have tea, the rain soon stopped like it will do in New England’s transient weather, and the tea was almost drunk when Blossom asked me if I’d ever heard of “The Four Spiritual Laws.” I told her that I hadn’t after I had quickly rummaged through my brain to see if I had ever heard of something like that. I’d made good grades in my high school physics class and knew something about physical “laws” propounded by Sir Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein, but I came up with nothing about any so-called “Spiritual Laws,” not even one of them, let alone four.

When I told Blossom that I hadn’t heard of “The Four Spiritual Laws,” she said to me in her lovely Jamaican accent, “Mark, God LOVES you and has a wonderful PLAN for your life.”

THAT caught my attention because I was beginning after six weeks of grueling failure to sell these stupid books to have doubts about my “gun, motorcycle, and sell pot in California” plan.

Blossom told me that the Bible says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life,” and that Jesus, Himself, said, “I came that they might have LIFE, and might have it ABUNDANTLY!” Blossom said that this was the First Spiritual Law.

“Really,” I said. “The Bible says that?”

Now I’d been raised Roman Catholic, and I was fairly devout in that religion as a boy . . . right up until I’d discovered sex, drugs, and rock & roll. But I’d never read “The Holy Bible.”

I had tried to read the Bible back when my personal philosophy had first morphed into a hedonistic mishmash of New Age crap and whatever my buddies and I dreamed up when we were stoned and talking gibberish that we thought sounded kind of profound.

However, I had tried to read the Bible just so that I could say that I had done so and, coincidentally, soon after I’d read the novel “The Exorcist” by William Blatty as a teenager which was all about demon possession and had the wits scared out of me. The passage that I just happened to flip the Bible open to that time that I’d tried to read it was the one where Jesus exorcises an entire legion of demons out of a man and sends the devils into a herd of pigs which all then stampeded over a cliff and were drowned in the sea! I got the wits scared out of me again, and I slammed the Bible shut with the exclamation, “HOLY SHIT! THAT stuffs for real!” And then about three years went by without me trying to read the Bible again or, even, without talking about it with anyone.

Blossom then said that the Second Spiritual Law was that, “Man is sinful and separated from God, and thus he cannot know and experience God’s LOVE and PLAN for his life.” Blossom again quoted from the Bible that says, “All have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God. For the wages of sin is death!”

“Huh.” I said.

“Law Three,” Blossom said is, “Jesus Christ is God’s ONLY provision for man’s sin. Through Him you can know and experience God’s LOVE and PLAN for your life.” And she quoted the Bible again to tell me, “But God demonstrates His own LOVE toward us, in that while were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Christ died for our sins . . . He was buried . . . He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures . . . He appeared to Peter, then to The Twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred . . . Jesus said . . . I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me!”

“So what’s your point,” I asked Blossom.

“Mark,” she said, “The Fourth Spiritual Law is that we must individually RECEIVE Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Then we can know and experience God’s LOVE and PLAN for our lives. The Bible says that ‘But as many as received Him, to THEM He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His Name. For by Grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is a gift from God, not as a result of works so that no one should boast.’ You can receive Christ Jesus right now, right here with us, Mark, through praying a simple prayer to do so, ‘Lord Jesus, I need You. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank you for forgiving me my sins. Take control of the throne of my life. Make me the kind of person You want me to be.’ Would you like to pray this prayer to God today, Mark?”

“Well,” I said, “It’s a lot to think about, and I gotta be going.”

“Here, Mark, take this little booklet with you and read it. I’ve written my husband Phil’s name and mine on the front, along with our address and phone number. You can call us any time you like should you choose to do so.”

“OK. Thank you both for the tea and for the conversation. Maybe, I’ll see you all again sometime.”

“We hope so!” both Blossom and Janet said at the same time.

Later that night after another grueling day failing to sell my stupid books going door to freakin’ door, I did re-read the booklet that Blossom had placed in my hands, and I did pray that prayer at the end of the booklet with the thought, “I’ll do this just to be on the safe side.”

And by morning, I’d forgotten all about whatever had happened the day before.