“You’ve only known us a month,” Nichole reminds me with a flick of her long red hair. My heart gives a little twinge, missing Vada.

“Which is why it’s bananas to have answered that question so many times. Besides, we’re not talking about that today. We’re talking about the book of James. My fave. And while Jesus didn’t have a girlfriend, as far as I know, he did have a brother. Which, can you even imagine?” I ask the girls. They surround me, sitting on worn sofas, their faces open and ready to learn. “Your sibling is the mother-loving son of God? I’m sure that went over splendidly at the Passover meal every year.”

“I barely tolerate my brother,” Maddy mumbles under her breath. I smirk.

“James was the same way at first. In fact, he didn’t actually believe Jesus was the son of God until after Jesus was crucified. We talk a lot about Doubting Thomas, but James, Jesus’s own half brother, was one of his biggest skeptics. It’s why I love his Gospel so much. He doesn’t pull any punches. He’s pragmatic and real and blunt as all get-out. He went from unbeliever and naysayer of his own flesh and blood to one of the major leaders of the early church. And he believed so hard and so completely, he allowed himself to be martyred for it.”

I skim my notes. “What else can I tell you about James? Oh!” I pull out my well-loved and much-marked-up Bible. “Turn to the book of James 1:19. Favorite verse time. ‘Let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger.’”

I close my Bible with a slap. “Like. Come on. That’s good stuff right there. Just your basic ‘how to be a decent human’ kind of thing. What say you four?”

“I’m not very good at being slow to anger,” Nichole admits. “My mom says I have a hot temper.”

“Same,” agrees Carolyn. “Sometimes people are stupid. I like to tell them.” The others chime in with assent.

I raise a finger. Man, I love teenage girls. They’re so frigging honest. And these four, Carolyn, Maddy, Nichole, and Becca, are darlings. Precocious and verging on mean, but they love with their full hearts, and I can’t get enough of that. I’m still not attending church regularly, but I haven’t missed a week of youth group. This small group of girls is giving me life.