What’s a twelve-year-old boy to do? God is sending him visions, flying saucers are playing peak -a -boo, and that girl he likes just smiled at him.
Follow Jeremy through five of the most incredible years of his life.
I held the tall glass of sparkling water before me and watched as it turned cloudy, then dirty. I moved it away from me, holding it at arm’s length. Yuck! It continued to get worse. Moss grew on the top and down the outside. A putrid vapor rose from the glass. I looked beyond the glass and saw people with rotted teeth and dopey expressions. I woke up confused and grossed out. The dream had been so vivid. I decided to note this in my journal. Later I was glad I did.
“Jeremy Lynden!” Mom yelled. She had great lungs. This shout could have been heard in the next county. I froze in mid-step. Mom was in the other room. How could she know? I soundlessly completed my step.
“Jeremy!” I exhaled. How did she do that? I looked at the wall that separated the kitchen and my parent’s bedroom where Mom was. She can’t see me. I looked again at my little sister, Anna, then at the small water balloon I held in my hand. Quickly I threw the balloon at Anna and ran out the back door. Anna was after me like a shot, screaming to wake the dead.
Before you could yell, “Boo!” Mom “applied the rule of law to the seat of knowledge” as she likes to say, and I did not want to sit down for the rest of the day. Lounging on my bed later that day, I absentmindedly looked around my room as I turned the pages of my Bible. I noticed a spider web in the far corner of the ceiling.
“Have you read that chapter yet, Jeremy?”
Was that Mom’s voice? Why did Mom always pick on me? Anna was such a brat, but she never got in trouble.
“Jeremy!”
There was that sound again. Like a gnat flying by. Now what was I supposed to be doing? Oh yeah, read something out of the Bible. What was it?
“JEREMY LYNDEN!”
There was Mom in the doorway.
“Yeah, Mom?”
Her face was red and her left eye twitched. Her lips didn’t move as she spoke. “I have been calling you. Didn’t you hear me?”
My mind went as blank as an empty chalkboard. What should I say? If she was as mad as she looked, anything could make her explode.
A strand of wavy brown hair fell in her face. She brushed it back with a sigh and rubbed her temples. “What chapter are you reading?”
“Chapter?”
Her body trembled now, and her voice escalated. “If you can’t choose a chapter in the Bible, I’ll choose one for you. Psalm one hundred nineteen!”
She left the doorway. I coolly turned the pages to find Psalm 119.
It was 176 verses long! Quickly scanning the pages, I found chapter 117 was only two verses. “MOM!”
A smile played about her mouth when she appeared again in the doorway. This annoyed me. She sweetly said, “Yes, dear?”
“How about Psalm one hundred seventeen?”
“You could have done that a half hour ago, but now it’s my choice. One hundred nineteen.” She almost skipped away from my room.
“MOM!” “Shall we make it two chapters?” I groaned and returned to the Bible but soon went looking for my mom. I found her in the kitchen drying dishes. “Mom, what’s this aleph and gimel stuff?”
“What?” She placed a dish in the cupboard and turned to me.
“This chapter is all cut up in parts with weird names on them.”
She smiled. “Oh, that’s the Hebrew alphabet.”
I walked into the small charter school the next day, examining the scuffs on the toes of my sneakers. It felt like everyone was against me. Mom and Dad always took the side of anyone else. My older brother, Simeon, could get away with anything. My sisters could do no wrong. I was so absorbed in misery I almost bumped into Andy, the new boy with Down Syndrome at school. There were three in my class now. Why were there so many? Then I saw Thomas, who was looking the other way. I quietly came up behind him and yelled, “Boo!” in his ear. Thomas jumped and turned to look at who had scared him. The girls nearby giggled. I whooped with laughter. In the small junior high, everyone would soon know about the moment. Thomas reddened, glared at me, then hurried into class.
Finally, the bell rang for break time. All right! It had been stuffy and boring in history class. I almost fell asleep. Who cared what those Egyptians did? I’m good at basketball, and now is my time to shine. But things did not go as I expected. I just wasn’t in the flow. Some days you can just feel it, like you could turn around backward, throw the ball, and make a basket. But not today. When it was my turn, I strutted up to the line and yelled, “I could do this with his eyes closed!” The other kids responded, daring me to do it. I closed my eyes for a moment, pretending I would, then I laughed. “Just kidding!” As I began to throw the ball, Thomas yelled, “Boo!” right in my ear, making me fumble the ball. Everyone laughed. That no-good Thomas had snuck up on me when my eyes were closed. I took off after him. “You’re ruining my life!” I screamed as the laughter burned my pride. That night I was telling Simeon about the terrible thing Thomas had done to me. “He’s ruining my life!”
Simeon chuckled. “You mean it could get worse?”
Dad’s tall figure filled the doorway. “Who has that much power over you?”
“What?”
“You said someone was ruining your life. I want to know who you are giving that much power to. No one can ruin your life unless you let them.”
I began to protest, but Dad squelched it.
“Listen to me, Jeremy. God is in control, right?”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“That has to do with everything. Answer me. Is God in control or not?”
“I guess. Why?”
Dad sighed. “OK, so, God is in control of everything all the time. Now answer me. Does God love you?”
I squinted at him. Where was he going with this? “I was talking about how a guy dissed me at school.”
“Answer my question. Does God love you?”
I wagged my head and sang, “For the Bible tells me so.” Dad raised his eyebrows. I sighed deeply and nodded. “Yes, Jesus loves me.”
“I want you to think about this: God has all power, and He loves you, so how can anyone at your school have the power to ruin your life?”
I jumped right back into my story. “This stupid Thomas yells in my ear right when I am going to make a basket. What do you call that?”
“Well, I don’t know, what did you do to him?”
“I chased after him, but the teacher stopped me before I caught him.”
“Now tell me what you did before all of this.”
“What?”
“Had you done anything to him earlier that might have upset him?”
“You always turn things around and make it look like it’s my fault!”
“Think about it, Jeremy, and think about this: God is in control of this world, and everything He allows into your life is for your good because He loves you. God never punishes us, but He does allow things into our lives to try to wake us up. Remember that. God trumps everyone. No one has the power to ruin your life.” He paused. “Now, get some sleep. Good night, Jeremy. I love you.”