Samuel moved from his chair to the sofa beside her. He opened the Bible, not theatrically but naturally, as though this was the most ordinary place in the world to go for help because for them it was.

“We know Jehovah doesn’t leave his people without direction,” he said. “And he also doesn’t ask us to invent our own.”

He read a few verses with her and spoke quietly about the importance of staying close to Jehovah’s Word and to the arrangement Christ is using to feed his people. He did not treat the conversation like a lecture. He treated it like shepherding.

Relevant scriptures: Matthew 24:45-47; Luke 12:42; Micah 7:7.

Sasha listened with the attention of someone who already loved the truth and only needed her thoughts brought back into alignment with it.

By the time they closed the Bible, her face had softened.

“I don’t want to run ahead,” she said.

Samuel nodded. “Neither do I.”

Nathan, still on the floor, held up a toy dinosaur and announced, “This one also does not run ahead.”

They both laughed.

The moment was small.

But it held.