Always Light

"Tre, what are you doing out here?" Granddad asked. Tre sat cross-legged on the balcony of his grandparents' apartment. Honking car horns and screeching city buses filled the night air. Tre scrunched his knees to his chest. "Trying not to think about school," he said, looking down. "Aw, Tre, I know it's been hard." Granddad put his hands on Tre's shoulders and sat down with him. "Hey, look at that!" Granddad pointed. "Tre, what do you see?" "Mr. Frank's Fried Chicken sign?" The neon sign across the street gave a red tint to Tre's face. Granddad chuckled. "Well, yes, that's good too. Real good. But look up even higher." Granddad pointed up into the dark sky. Tre stretched his neck up and gave a half smile when he saw the moon, then looked back down. "You see it, Tre?" "Yeah." Tre twirled his untied shoelace around his finger. Earlier that day, some kids at school had made fun of him for the shoes he wore. Between struggling with math and now kids making fun of him, he didn't even want to think about school. But at the same time, school was all he could think about. He was worried about what would happen the next day and every day after that. Tre looked up again. The moon was so big and so radiant that not even the city lights or Mr. Frank's Fried Chicken sign could drown out its glow. The moonlight brightened his face. "Tre, who made that moon?" "God." Tre smiled. "That's right, and that moon is always there, even if there are clouds or blinding fried chicken signs making it harder for us to see it." Granddad looked up at the moon. "Just like that moon, God is always there too. Even if it's hard to see Him through the stuff you face at school sometimes, Jesus is still there with you, like a light that never goes out. He saved you from the darkness of sin, and He promises to be with you through all the tough stuff." Tre smiled, still looking up at the moon. "So, God's like a light?" Granddad nodded. "A light as bright as Mr. Frank's Fried Chicken sign?" asked Tre. Granddad winked. "Even brighter." –Amanda Gott