The people who know their God shall be strong and carry out great exploits. ~ Daniel 11:32

Rodney’s stomach was growling. He had endured the agony of passing up his dad’s homemade waffles this morning, but the day was wearing on without relief. The orange juice he allowed himself wasn’t cutting it. He had somehow lived through wood shop and biology. But the students sitting next to him in physics class at Birmingham Community Charter High School were starting to notice the protestations emanating from his midsection. This was unbearable. It was only 10:20 a.m.

The pretty girl sitting next to him laughed when Rodney’s stomach produced another gurgling roar. “Child, you’re hungry!” Sharise chided. Rodney looked up and weakly smiled at her. She had short, smooth, dark hair and Rodney liked the shape of her coffee-ice-cream-hued face. There was a guardian angel, who looked like a sweet old black woman, sitting on top of Sharise’s desk. Rodney thought about how there’s nothing more comforting in the entire world than a sweet, old black lady. He was glad to see her sitting there.

It was at that moment that Rodney realized he had never paid attention to Sharise’s faith before. He had known her for two years but he hadn’t noticed she was a Christian. He just thought she was nice. He made a mental note to pay more attention to people’s belief systems in the future. And then he realized he didn’t have to work at it. It was all completely obvious to him now. If someone had an angel hanging around, he or she was a believer.

He wondered if the demons were proof of anything. Like the buzzard-shaped one perched on Mr. Thaxton’s shoulder right now. Rodney wanted to ask Barook about it, but he didn’t want the teacher to hear him whispering and assign him pushups, so he let it go. Just then, the short stubby teacher was launching into a lecture on the universe.

“Okay dummies, who thinks outer space is expanding?” Most of the hands went up. “Good! You five who didn’t raise your hands, drop and give me ten pushups.” The kids were used to this kind of mind-body drill so they complied without a peep while Mr. Thaxton continued his line of questioning.

“And who thinks the universe is expanding ever more slowly since the Big Bang due to the constricting forces of gravity?” Six kids raised their hands cautiously while looking around the room, hoping more hands would shoot up. Rodney had managed to complete his required reading last week so he kept his hand down.

“No!” shouted Mr. Thaxton. “Don’t you remember 1998 and the Hubble showing us that the rate of expansion is accelerating? Drop and give me ten.” Now eleven kids were on the floor, almost kissing the linoleum, their arms straining to complete the physical task assigned them.

“So what force is strong enough to overcome gravity and keep the universe expanding at not just a constant rate, but at an ever-increasing rate?” he queried the 20 or so kids left sitting in their chairs.

“Dark energy?” offered Sharise with a bit of uncertainty in her voice.

“Good girl. And what’s the difference between dark matter and dark energy?” He pointed to a freckle-faced, heavy-set boy near the back of the class. “Mike?”

“A Red Bull, sir?” As the class cracked up and Mr. Thaxton opened his mouth to yell for more pushups, Mike rapidly added, “No, just kidding. Dark energy makes up about 70% of the universe and dark matter makes up about 25%. Dark energy is pulling the universe apart while dark matter has enough mass to exert gravitational pull. It’s matter, not energy, but scientists aren’t sure what it’s made up of. It might be something like WIMPS—weakly interacting massive particles.”

“Good enough, boy.” Thaxton nodded his approval. The rest of the class had finished their pushups and climbed back into their chairs by now. “Who wants to tell me about WIMPS and MACHOs?”