as told by Josh Pearlman to Katherine G. Bond

I get tired of feeling different. It’s like being the only giraffe on a sheep ranch. I just stick out. People at school know I’m Jewish. Usually they don’t say anything about it, but sometimes they do. One day, a kid named Troy said, "I heard Jews wear stupid little hats when they go to their synagogues. Do you have a stupid little hat, Josh?"

My dad told me why we wear those hats—yarmulkes, they’re called. He said when the Jews were controlled by the Romans, the Romans said Jews had to cover their heads to show that they were slaves to the emperor. The Jews said, "We have only one God, and it’s not the emperor. We’ll cover our heads, but it will be to honor the Lord."

Of course, our family sticks out, even among our relatives. Before I was born, my dad and mom made a decision to accept Jesus as their Messiah. "You can’t be Jewish and believe in Jesus!" our relatives said. But we do. We call Him Yeshua, His Jewish name. We worship in a messianic synagogue with Jewish as well as non-Jewish believers. We dance and sing and celebrate Passover and the Resurrection. It’s fun, but it’s different.

I’m not sure why Troy loves to make fun of me. It really makes me mad. Sometimes he hides my homework; sometimes he just calls me names. Sometimes I think if I didn’t stick out so much, he’d just leave me alone.

Saved by the Bell

One day I was having lunch with my friend Alex. He said, "You know, the world is going to blow up in 60 years."

"Where did you hear that?" I said.

"Oh, I just heard it. Scientists have studied it."

"Well, I think that’s God’s decision."

"Unh unh," he said. "Scientists know. It doesn’t have anything to do with God."

"If you believe that way, wait until Judgment Day."

"Judgment Day?!" he said through a mouthful of potato chips. "You’ve been watching too many Terminator movies!"

One more point for Josh in strangeness, I thought. It was funny, though, that Alex thought the world's blowing up was perfectly normal, but the Judgment Day was something out of science fiction.

Right about then, a blob of spit landed on my turkey sandwich. Troy had arrived, and he had his slaves with him.

"Hey, Alex," he said, "why do you want to eat lunch with Pearlman?"

"Yeah," said one of the guys with him, taking my can of soda pop and dumping it out in the garbage.

"Come hang with us," Troy told him. "You don’t need this religious freak."

Alex looked from me to them. I wasn’t sure what he was going to do. Then the bell rang, so he didn’t have to decide.

Bathroom Blues

The next thing was an assembly. My teacher, Mrs. Stevens, always wants us to be quiet when she walks us down the hall. Troy walked behind me and tried to step on my heels, but I wasn’t going to say something and get into trouble. Alex was at the front of the line. He wouldn’t look at me when we sat down in the bleachers. Maybe he thought I’d infect him and he’d become a "religious freak." I wished I hadn’t said that stuff about the Judgment Day.

Mr. Lindgren, the principal, got up and announced, "Today, we have some special guests."

I don’t know why, but I got this weird feeling in the pit of my stomach. The guests came out. They were a dance team, and they wore really colorful costumes with animal designs on them. It looked interesting. But I still felt strange.

"This first dance is dedicated to the Fire God," the leader began.

I froze. They were dancing to a false god, and I was just sitting there. I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other gods before me, was running through my head. My mom helped me memorize that verse when I was 5. I even knew it in Hebrew. I couldn’t stay there.

The dancers started another number, this time to the God of the Air. Alex looked over at me; I must have had a strange look on my face, because he mouthed, "What’s wrong?"

I decided to act.

"Mrs. Stevens," I said, "could I go to the bathroom?"

My teacher nodded. I went into the boys’ room and stayed there, still hearing the music from the gym.

I sat down on the floor and waited, counting the tiles on the ceiling. "I hope I’m doing the right thing," I prayed to God.

After a long time, Mr. Lindgren came in. "What are you doing here?" he asked. "You’ve been gone for 30 minutes. You get back into that assembly."

I swallowed hard. "I can’t go back," I told him. "It’s against my religion."

"What is?" he asked.

"All that stuff about other gods," I said. "I don’t believe in that."

"Well, you need to be respectful of other people’s beliefs," he said. "Now, I want you to go sit with your class."

I didn’t want to be rude to Mr. Lindgren or the dancers. Maybe I should go back, I thought. Maybe I was just making too big a deal out of it.

From the gym I could hear the dance leader saying, "Now, the Earth God is very powerful . . ."

"I can’t," I said to Mr. Lindgren. "I can’t go back in there."

He looked pretty mad. "Maybe you’d rather sit in the office," he said.

"Yes," I answered, "I would."

Being Judged

At recess, Troy was waiting. "How come you left the assembly, Pearlman?"

Alex came up on my other side. He, too, was wondering why I had left. Maybe I could make something up; tell them I had a dental appointment. I’d had enough of being different.

I am the Lord your God. . . . The verse ran through my head again. Yeshua had to be different, I thought. He stuck out too, and people called Him names and even spat on Him. But He didn’t chicken out.

I took a deep breath, "Those dances were dedicated to false gods," I said. "I believe there is only one God. I have to stand before Him on the Judgment Day. It would have been wrong for me to stay, even though I got in trouble for leaving."

Troy snorted and turned away, but Alex looked at me for a long time. Finally, he nodded his head. "Cool," he said. "Way cool, Josh."

	Q: What is a bird’s favorite game? A: Air hockey. Adam O., 9, Arkansas Clubhouse Jr. Click here to subscribe