Looking Past the Verse

On Sunday nights, we meet with the teens of the youth group. The first Sunday, we meet with Junior High. The second Sunday, we meet with the High School. And the third Sunday, both Junior High and High School meet together. Our church calls these huddles. This month, Jeremy talked about looking past the verses in the Bible. He challenged the teens to think about what the Bible characters felt like during their story and write a poem about it. Jeremy and I also took part in this activity and each wrote a poem. Take Adam and Eve for example. What thoughts and emotions were going through Eve's head as she realized she had disappointed God by eating the forbidden fruit. Did she feel sad? Did she feel guilty? What feelings would she have expressed if she could have confided in you? What about Adam? How did he feel when his wife did the one thing that God had asked them not to? What did he think when he realized both he and she were naked? There are all kinds of emotions and thoughts that Adam and Eve might have been feeling when Eve ate the apple. In the poems, we were to pretend like we did not know what happens at the end of the story. What if you were reading the story of Adam and Eve to someone who had never heard the story before? Would you read it exactly like it is or would you throw some emotion in it?

I wrote one poem at the Junior High huddle and one poem at the High School huddle. Here are my poems. The first one is about Noah and the flood. You can read about it starting in Genesis 6. The second poem is about Abraham and Isaac. This story can be found in Genesis 22:1-19.

Why me?

Why did He choose me?

I am 600 years old.

I don't know if I am that bold.

~

God said take two

of every living creature.

What am I to do?

Two of EVERY living creature?

~

Spiders, scorpions, birds that can fly.

Cows, horses, lions

and tigers and bears; oh my!

God must really have faith in me.

~

We must all be in this boat

called an ark.

I sure hope I build it well enough to float.

Rain, rain, rain.

~

It's raining,

it's pouring,

the old man

is snoring!

~

Yep, it's me.

The old man.

And it is He,

who chose me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh, how can this be?

This is the worst news

I could have ever received!

Why is this happening to me?

~

My one and only son.

I only have one!

My beloved, my dear.

Oh, how I fear.

~

The past few days

have been the longest

days of my life.

But I must take it in strife.

~

God, do you really understand

what you are asking of me?

You truely, honestly want me

to take the life of my only son with my own hand?

~

How will I ever be able to live

with what you are asking me to do?

To kill, to murder, my one and only beloved son.

Lord, I put my trust in you.

~

Well, this is it.

The time has come.

Oh Lord, I feel so helpless.

Man, this is gonna make a big mess.

~

Son, I love you.

This is not what

I had planned to do.

Please, Lord, I beg of you.

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To me, it wasn't that hard to do. I used to write poems in high school. You should try it sometime. I would like to see yours if you do. You can post them on my comment section or email me if you don't want to share them with others. Here is a link to Jeremy's blog www.baldgoat.tumblr.com so you can read his poem if you want to. He also put a few of the teens poems on his blog.