Exhausted, with no more tears left to cry through her red eyes she could swear someone was there. I have completely lost my mind, and have gone from hearing voices to seeing things she thought to herself. She blinked her eyes trying to focus, hoping that her overactive mind would dismiss this imaginary person.

‘Ann.’ she heard the voice say.

Startled she sat up quickly. ‘Great! Now the voice is back too.’ she thought to herself.

‘Ann, I am here.’ the voice now coming out of a man in her room. She shook her head, as she continued to think she had lost her mind. If she was sane she would be terrified of a strange man in her room.

‘Ann’, the voice said again, ‘I am here, do not be afraid’.

Her vision became clearer. ‘Joshua!’ How in the world did he get into her home?

‘There is nothing to fear Ann. I am here to take away your pain, and to tell you that you are loved.’ He replied.

She recognized that voice. It was the same one she thought she had imagined all those years ago. Maybe her imagination has grown into hallucinations.

‘I am real Ann, and I am here for you. It is time to stop running from who you are.’ he said.

Okay it is round two she thought to herself before she replied, ‘I know who I am, and I am not running from anything.’

‘Are you sure about that?’ he asked.

‘Of course I do! No one knows who I am better than me. I also have nothing to run from’ she replied.

‘You think you know who you are, but you are just acting like you do. You have played so many characters throughout your life you have lost who you are.’

‘Who are you to think you know me? We only met the other day and you are talking to me like you actually know me when you don’t!’ she said getting defensive, yet still not afraid that he had entered her home. Logic tells her that a strange man that she did not invite in should have terrified her more than the thought of loosing her mind. Yet even though she was annoyed with where this conversation was going, she felt safe with him. ‘How did you get into my home?’ she finally thought to ask.

‘You let me in.” he replied.

‘I did not! I was…’ she stopped herself not wanting to remember all those tears. ‘I know I did not let you in, so tell me how did you get in?’ she asked again.

‘Ann, do you remember your uncle’s wedding?’ he asked.

‘What does that have to do with what I just asked you?’ she said becoming angry about how he was not answering her simple question.

‘Do you remember the pastor inviting you to come back to the church and go to Sunday school?’ he continued.

She was really aggravated now. ‘Yes I remember my uncle’s wedding, I was the flower girl, and yes I remember going to that church afterward. I went there until we moved. That still does not answer my question about how you got into my home.’

‘Do you remember how you would walk up to the alter and pray every Sunday?’ he continued asking her questions while seeming to ignore hers.

‘Okay! You still are not telling me how you got in. Tell me or leave me alone! she said as loud as she could without yelling.

‘It was at that church, the one you went to and went to Sunday school, then the service where you would pray. You also chose to be baptized there. It was there when you let me in. You may have run away from your past, but I have never left you.’ he answered.

‘No!’ she yelled, ‘I don’t know you, and I never met you before the other day.’

‘It is me Ann. Look at me and remember. I knew you before you were born and I have always been here. No matter where you have gone, and no matter what you have done I have never stopped loving you. When you left your past behind you, the people who had hurt you were not the only ones you left behind. I would never force myself on you, but I have always been there. You could not see me because you did not want to, but now you can. The reason is because you do want to see me, you just forgot why.’ his voice was gentle and kind.

All of a sudden, the anger that had been growing disappeared. She looked at him and could finally see. She gasped, ‘It is you! You are real!’ She dropped to her knees covering her face with her hands. The tears began flowing again.

He came to her and took her face in his hands. ‘No more tears my child.’ he said as he wiped her eyes. ‘All is forgiven, but you I have never forgotten and I never will. You are a jewel in my crown, a chosen one, and most important you are loved, and there is nothing that can take that away from you. Not even you.’ he said as he playfully touched her nose.

‘It really is you.’ she said as she rose to give him a hug.

He smiled at her and everything else seemed to disappear. ‘No more running for you. It is time for you my child to come home.’ he said reaching out his hand to her which she gladly took.