Salvation City - By Sigrid Nunez Page 0,85
change or anything you want,” said PW, “it’s still the hand of God. Meaning it is part of his plan. And the only way we can understand any of it, or where God is going with it, is by praying and pondering Scripture and praying some more.”
Many Christians had grown up believing that the Gospel age would end in their lifetime. Many had taken it for granted that, when the pandemic struck, the final days had arrived. But as weeks and then months went by, people began craving a sign. Was it wrong to pray for a clearer idea of how much longer the world had to exist? There were a lot of pastors who differed from Pastor Wyatt about righteous Christian behavior in this regard. They believed time was so short that people should drop everything else and focus all their efforts on preparing for Christ’s return.
“And a little child shall lead them.”
“If you do not change and become like little children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.”
On this point Scripture was clear. It was the small fry on earth who’d be the big fish in heaven. Look to the child for the way. It was because of this that rapture children were now more sought after than ever, and though child preachers were nothing new, congregations could not get enough of them.
Earlier that summer, during a service at a church in Denver, a three-year-old named Dewdrop had toddled down the aisle, cutting the minister off in midsentence by tugging at his trouser cuff. When the minister asked her what she wanted, she said, “I want to preach.” Struck (as Reverend Gates later explained) by the authority in her tone and the meaningful way she locked eyes with him, he lifted her up to the mike. And in a voice that managed to be at once like honey and a clap of thunder, she said, “Obey the Commandments. Love and forgive. Pray to the Lord, who is near.” Like a tsunami, was how members of the congregation described the wave of emotion that swept through the church. Many broke into loud weeping, flinging their heads back or their arms into the air. Others hurled themselves to their knees in the aisles, crying out to be saved. All was caught on camera, and soon more than a million people around the world had sent messages to Dewdrop asking her to pray for them.
There wasn’t really much of the child anymore about Clem Harley, who most people probably would have taken for older than his age of thirteen. He often seemed (people said) like a man in a boy’s body (the way Pastor Wyatt often seemed like a boy in a man’s body). With Pastor Wyatt too sick to do his duty, the Church of Salvation City’s boy preacher was called to step in. But those who’d seen videos of Dewdrop or of other famous baby preachers couldn’t get too excited about Clem. He had a crackly voice and a droning inflection, the complete opposite of Pastor Wyatt. And unlike Pastor Wyatt, Brother Clem never smiled.
Not that Clem wasn’t a prodigy. But knowing the Bible backward and forward as he appeared to do just made him seem even less childlike. No one complained, of course; no one would have wanted to hurt his feelings. Though his feelings must have been hurt anyway when people nodded off, as at least some did every sermon.
It was now common practice to ask if any children in the congregation had received a word to share with their fellow worshippers. Pastor Wyatt had started doing this at every service, but so far (in spite of some whispering and sharp elbowing here and there) no child had stepped forward. Each time, the disappointment in the air seemed to grow a little thicker. Then Pastor Wyatt would chide his flock for lack of faith and for the sin of impatience, quoting from Lamentations, “The Lord is good to those who wait for him,” and from the book of James, “Be patient, then, my brothers and sisters, until the coming of the Lord.”
And, according to Clem, “If they hadn’t been so darned impatient, Adam and Eve would still be in Paradise.”
“I KNOW ABOUT YOU AND MASON.”
Had he actually said it? Starlyn’s face left no doubt that he had. And instantly Cole was sorry. And he was even more amazed: where had he got the nerve?
They were alone in the house. An hour ago, someone had called to