Ali Cross hasn’t seen his best friend, Gabe Qualls, for three days. The missing boy doesn’t answer his phone, and “he hadn’t answered any of the half-million texts [he]’d sent him, either” (4). Ali knows there must be an explanation for Gabe’s disappearance, but he has no idea what it is. All he wants for Christmas is to have his friend back, alive and well. 

At the Christmas Eve church service, Ali is chosen to pray for children everywhere. He’s so distracted by concern over his missing friend that the priest must ask him twice to step forward.

Ali goes to the lectern and pulls out his hand-written prayer. His father and older brother, Damon, encourage him from the front row. Ali thinks about how he met Gabe in middle school and bonded with him over the Outpost video game. He tells the congregation that he wants to offer a prayer to a single kid, Gabriel Qualls, who’s missing. Remembering how Jesus was born in a stable and that, at first, almost no one cared about him, he hopes the worshipers can make room in their hearts for Gabe.

His prayer asks God to keep Gabe safe and help him return home.