Twice Elly comes to the door with a 'stranger' over her shoulder. Each time it is clearly a stuffed dummy and not a real person.
Jed says that the Bible says that God works in mysterious ways. In fact the line "God moves in a mysterious way / His wonders to perform" is from "Light Shining Out of Darkness" by the English poet and hymnist William Cowper (1731-1800).