Goliath snatched Wren up off the rocky ground and held her high in the air for the whole Philistine army to see. He yanked her up so hard and fast she thought she was going to pass out.
Despite the way the Bible story ended, she was not going to be as lucky as the young shepherd boy.
Her luck had finally run out.
She writhed in the giant’s powerful grip like a snake, trying to break free, but it was no use. She was a fourth-grader, and he was a nine-foot-tall superhuman.
The giant squeezed his fist and slowly pushed the air from Wren’s lungs.
As she hung there, high above the plain, her life slipped away.
“They are sending a boy to battle you!”
Her lungs were squeezing shut in Goliath’s hand. But her mind was still crystal clear.
The boy was David, and he was going to get rid of the nasty giant with a sling and a stone!
All she had to do was hold on a little while longer.
“AM I A DOG, THAT YOU COME AT ME WITH STICKS?”
The giant’s deep voice boomed like a bomb going off in Wren’s brain. She was slipping away, unable to hold on to life.
“COME HERE, AND I’LL GIVE YOUR FLESH TO THE BIRDS AND THE WILD ANIMALS!”
She thought about her poor father crying in the rain. If she died out here in the giant’s hand, that would be the end of him. First her mother and now her.
He would be devastated.
She heard a softer voice this time. It sounded familiar but very far away.
“I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God whom you have defied!”
David! Yes, it was David!
“This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands!”
She tried one last time to fight back against the beast of a man. She pushed against his clenched fist with everything she had.
The world grew dim and her vision blurred.
The end was almost here.
As she hung high above the land, Wren could barely make out the shape of the shepherd approaching. Her brain was foggy from fright and pain.
Wren tried calling David’s name, but she didn’t have anything left. She saw David raise his arm to the giant.
Was he going to sling the stone that would take Goliath down?
The card in my pocket. The green index card!
The thought was a long shot, but it was all she had.
Lord, please help me!
Wren summoned all her strength and managed to reach a hand into her jeans pocket. She felt the index card and pulled it out.
Please, God!
Goliath’s attention was on David. She could see her friend reach into a bag and pull out a stone.
She used both hands to roll the card into a tight tube.
“Hey!” Wren yelled to her captor.
The giant pulled her closer to him.
She could see David now holding the sling.
Wren shoved the index card into the giant’s left eye, and his grip loosened on her. She bit hard into Goliath’s thumb, and his hand opened farther.
He let go of her, and she thought she would be free, but the giant scrambled and caught her right shoe. Wren hung in the air, upside down.
Please, God! Help me!
Wren used her left foot to push her right shoe off.
The shoe inched off her heel….
The blood rushed to her head….
It was getting harder to concentrate….
Sweat from the struggle filled her eyes.
Wren used her last ounce of strength to push…
…push…push on the shoe.
It popped off!
As she fell, Wren saw David’s stone slam deep into the giant’s forehead.
She hit the ground, and her body exploded in pain.
The massive superhuman fell facedown onto the ground, inches away from her.
David won! He killed the giant just like the Bible said he did!
As she lay there on the ancient field, unable to move, Wren wished she could at least see her father.
But her body was broken, and there was no going back.
The end was here, and the darkness was coming.
Fast.