The Poor Rich Guy

Grady attends Wooton's church for the first time because his mother needs him out of the way while she does Sunday laundry for customers. In Whit's class, Tamika recites Jesus' statement that a camel can more easily pass through a needle's eye than a rich person can enter heaven. She casually concludes that wealthy people cannot be saved.

When Whit announces that he will pay for the whole class to visit Waterworld, Grady assumes he must be rich. Marvin and Tamika begin worrying that the man they admire is therefore excluded from heaven. They search for tiny camels and unusually large needles before awkwardly questioning Whit about his bank account.

At Wooton's house, Grady accidentally pulls The Exhaustive Guide to Turnips from a bookcase and opens a hidden room. Inside are original sketches and working materials for Power Boy. He realizes that Wooton secretly creates the comic.

Wooton asks Grady not to reveal his identity because fame and money might change how people treat him. Grady promises, but he also realizes that a comic read by more than a hundred fifty thousand people must have made Wooton wealthy. Since Wooton is the kindest person Grady knows, the Bible's apparent rejection of rich people now seems obviously false.

Grady refuses to attend church again and calls the Bible nonsense. When Wooton leaves the other riders to follow him, Grady reveals the real objection: if Scripture says a wealthy man like Wooton cannot enter heaven, he wants nothing to do with it.

Meanwhile, Tamika and Marvin telephone Universal Press and learn that Whit chairs a company with more than three hundred employees. They take this as final proof of his wealth and prepare to warn him about his eternal future. Whit has already guessed the source of their strange questions and is ready to help.

Whit first gives them a single sentence from a newspaper report saying polar bears have arrived in Egypt. Taken alone, the line sounds impossible. The rest of the article explains that the animals are moving into an Arctic habitat in a new Egyptian zoo. The meaning becomes clear only when the readers know the context.

The children then read the verses surrounding the camel comparison. Jesus says wealth makes entering heaven difficult, not that a rich person can never be saved. When the disciples ask who can be saved, Jesus explains that what is impossible for people is possible with God. Riches become a barrier when they take God's place, but God can save people who put him first.

Grady realizes that his conflict came from judging the entire Bible by one isolated sentence. Whit encourages all three children to ask questions and read carefully whenever a passage seems confusing instead of inventing explanations or dismissing Scripture.

Grady returns to help Wooton paint his treehouse. He explains that he feared Wooton was excluded from heaven, but Wooton says he is not saved because he is nice; he is saved through Jesus. Relieved that his friend and the Bible do not contradict each other, Grady resumes both their friendship and his willingness to listen at church.

Knowing Wooton's secret also helps Grady predict how Power Boy will escape the giant Mosquito Man: he will climb a tree and make owl noises, Wooton's favorite hiding trick. Wooton realizes that a reader who knows the author can understand the story better - just as Grady is beginning to understand Scripture by looking beyond one line.