Part Nine of a Ten Part Poem

Originally published on July 20th, 2019

The middle school girl runs over to me with a bucket of water.

Her hair is dripping wet and her clothes are soaked through.

I sit on the bench bone dry, and she runs over and throws the water onto me.

There is a second of stillness.

I see her face change for a moment- a flicker of fear in her eyes.

I imagine how she expects me to respond, I wonder if it’s the same way I expect people to respond when I step into an unknown space-

how I assume I will be wrong.

I smile at her and begin to laugh, her face thaws and softens into laughter.

She sits next to me.

We keep laughing.

In this moment, God is in the healing-

the water a beautiful baptism of risking trust.