Smile

13

I cried
At youth group
Last night.
The music
Hit me pretty hard
And the kids...
They were all
Super nice.
And they were all
Singing with the music,
And they had their hands raised.
Some were so moved
That they cried,
Too.
When the leader
Preached about
The end of the Earth,
And living with God,
I watched everyone imagine it,
And I saw a girl cry,
Even,
Just imagining it.

Why are they so moved?
I didn't get it.
I mean,
Why do they believe
In a God
Who makes kids die
Of starvation?
Who makes people
Who rape
And murder?
I don't understand.

Shane was one of the ones
Who had his hand raised through out
The entire worship session.
He had his eyes closed,
And he sang so loud,
Even though he wasn't
All that great at singing.

When we were praying
The leader asked
If anyone wanted to have
A relationship with God.
He told us,
That everyone's eyes were closed,
So if we wanted to
Ask God into our hearts,
To just raise our hands.
He had everyone repeat after him
A prayer to ask God
Into our hearts.
I stayed quiet,
But I observed the others
Who actually repeated.

The one girl,
Who I saw
That was choked up
When we were imagining
The end of the earth,
Raised her hand,
And she was crying
When she repeated after the leader.
She had a hard time
Speaking clearly,
And I could tell
That if she didn't just whisper,
She would've sobbed.

After that,
We played dodgeball.
I found it pretty funny,
Actually,
To have such an emotional
Service,
And then play dodgeball.
I didn't play,
Because I didn't want to get hit
By the balls,
But Shane played.
He was really good,
Too.
He got his team
To win,
Even though he was the last one
Standing.
I smiled at him
When he won,
And I told him
He did a good job,
But my mind
Was still swimming
From the service,
And I kept thinking
About the girl
Who cried
When she accepted
Jesus into her heart.

I was watching her slightly
For the rest of youth group,
And she couldn't stop glowing,
And smiling,
And laughing.
It was like nothing could bring her down.
And suddenly I realized,
What is was
That Ingrid had
That I didn't.
I realized why she was never alone.
She
Had
God.