actually known anyone who was being homeschooled. Now it was just the opposite. Cole didn’t know any kid in Salvation City who wasn’t being homeschooled. Most of their parents had been homeschooled when they were growing up, too.
From now on his teachers would be Tracy and Pastor Wyatt. But it turned out the only subject he studied with PW was the Bible.
“I know all this is new to you, so I have to explain some. But if you aren’t studying the Book, there isn’t much point in studying any other book. When we’re reading Scripture, that is one of the times—another is when we pray—when we’re able to bring ourselves closer to God. It’s when he sees we’re paying attention to him and trying to get at his truth. In fact, when we’re engaged in reading the Bible with our absolute undivided attention, it really amounts to the same thing as prayer. We’re not saying that math and science and all the other subjects aren’t important. We’re saying the Bible is altogether something else. Those other subjects will teach you plenty of things that are good to know, but all of them put together can’t teach you how you should live.”
Among the many books in Cole’s parents’ library had been a Bible, but the only thing he remembered about it was that it was the most ridiculously long book he’d ever seen. He could not imagine anyone reading it.
“Uh-oh,” said PW. “I see that look on your face, and you can just chill right there. Nobody’s saying you’ve got to learn everything in a day. We’re going to take things slow, and trust me, nobody’s going to make you sit in a corner and read the whole Bible cover to cover like some kind of punishment. So wipe that frown off and come give me a hug.”
It had taken some getting used to, PW’s eagerness to hug and be hugged. At first Cole had dreaded these moments, when he never knew quite where to place his hands or which way to turn his head. His face would color and he would hold his breath and stare at the floor. After a while, though, he lost his excruciating shyness and awkwardness, and now there were times when he wished it weren’t over so quickly, that PW would keep holding him longer.
They do not start with Genesis. The first thing Cole learns is the Lord’s Prayer. Some of it sounds familiar to him, though he knows he has never learned it before, he has never learned any prayer before. PW shows him where in the Bible the Lord’s Prayer is from.
“You see, it didn’t make sense for people to go on praying in the same old ways as before. Because Jesus’ coming changed everything. What he was bringing to the world was something completely new, so there had to be a new way of praying, too. And Jesus told his disciples not to pray like hypocrites, making a big deal out of it, making sure everyone sees them doing it and using a lot of show-offy words. Pray like this, he said, and he taught them these very words you’re learning now, over two thousand years later. Short and simple, yet somehow encompassing all: thankfulness, forgiveness, a plea for help in avoiding sin, and praise of God.”
Cole learns the prayer easily, and then PW teaches him another prayer, or psalm, rather, from another part of the Bible. Again, Cole recognizes some of the words. The valley of the shadow of death. Fear no evil. He has come across those words many times before, in movies and comics and video games, but without ever knowing where they were from.
Cole is amazed that anyone could do what PW does: open that ginormous book to exactly whatever passage he is looking for. And he is amazed that anyone would spend hours every day studying something he already knows so well.
“Ah,” said PW. “Your mistake there is in thinking the Bible is just another—albeit ginormous—book. Even those of us who’ve read and reread every word, we don’t ever put the Bible away. Why? Because God inspired Scripture precisely so he and us could always be in communication with each other. The Bible may be ancient, but it ain’t ‘history.’ It’s today’s news, every day. And we call the story of Jesus the Gospel, or Evangel, because those words mean ‘good news.’”
They do not have set hours for their Bible study—they have to work around PW’s busy