June 20, Ordinary 12B (1 Samuel 17:1a, 4-11, 19-23, 32-49)
Saul would have provided better odds against Goliath. But God might not have favored him in the matchup.
I got my first black eye in fourth grade. It was a left-handed uppercut, delivered by a classmate named JD during an indoor recess period on a day when the weather was deemed too grim for outdoor play.
When his knuckles hit my right orbital bone, it made a popping noise like the one you hear inside your head when you first try to speak with a dry mouth. It felt much worse than it sounded, swelling my face and impairing my vision so quickly that my retaliatory strike was limited to a flail and grapple before a teacher pulled us apart.
I should have seen it coming. It was only my second year at North Elementary, but the ordo studiosus wasn’t all that unique. Bigger was better, and JD was small—specifically, short. And he didn’t like the way this made others perceive him.
