February, 1999
It had been a horrible week. Money was tight, my ex-husband was threatening to leave the state and pay “what he wanted” for child support, and bills were not getting paid. To make matters worse, my phone was not working! Calls were coming in, but the ringer was not working, and I wasn’t able to make calls either.
I had been dealing with a broken phone since that Monday, and according to the phone company, my phone line could not be repaired until the following week. I had been checking my messages each morning at work. I don’t know exactly why I even bothered checking my messages because most of them were left from creditors inquiring when I would be submitting payment on my late bills. The calls only reminded me of my money troubles and by the end of the workday, it all left me feeling just more depressed and overwhelmed.
By Wednesday night, I was feeling completely defeated. It already was feeling like a long week, and I just needed to escape! A nice, long hot bath seemed like the perfect refuge. The kids had just finished dinner and were watching one of their favorite TV shows, so I headed to the bathroom for some much needed alone time.
Once in the tub, I found myself just sitting there, watching the running hot water fill up around me. I felt both exhausted and numb, hoping that a bath would make me feel better. My bathtub was always a place where I could unwind away from the kids; where I could think clearly and even cry if I needed to.
As I sat there, the worries of the day and all my money woes and stress from my recent divorce seemed to engulf me, and it wasn’t long until the tears came pouring down. The events from the past few months left me feeling completely hopeless, and I wondered how I let things get that bad. I wasn’t still in control of my life, and it bothered me. I remembered how hard it was to build the courage within myself to leave an abusive and unhealthy marriage and to start a new life for myself and my two children, but I still had not found the stability I had desperately needed.
I found myself praying to God in that tub. I prayed out loud to him. I needed some answers because I felt powerless. I needed help because I doubted myself. “Take it, take all of it!” I heard myself saying out loud. I was done! I found myself offering all my worries and doubts to God, and by the time I got out of that tub, I felt a usual feeling resolve that things would get better. I wasn’t sure if the good cry in that tub was enough for me to clear my mind, or whether it was the feeling that my prayers were being heard, I only know that by the time I left the bathroom, I felt accomplished.
The water was getting cold, and my son had been knocking on my door. I looked at the digital clock in my bedroom and it was only 6:50 pm. I decided to make it an early night and got into my pajamas. I spent the rest of my evening with the kids on the couch, laughing and watching T.V. until we all fell asleep. I woke up on the couch later with my son and daughter’s legs and arms strewn around and on top of me. I helped them both to bed and kissed them goodnight.
The morning came, and soon enough, I was back at my desk at work the next day. I turned to my phone and dialed my home number to check for my messages. I was a little surprised to find only one message on my voicemail. I listened to it, and then replayed it over and over again, not believing what I was hearing.
The caller did not say who he was. If it was a telemarketer or a bill collector, he didn’t say. At 6:45 pm, this stranger left this message on my phone:
“Good evening Julie. God bless you, and remember Jesus loves you.”
I did not recognize the man’s voice. He didn’t have an accent of any kind. I heard a muffled, background noise, but again no name or affiliation to any company. I only knew that I had never received a call like this from any telemarketer or bill collector before. I played the message over again in disbelief until I suddenly realized the time of the call. 6:45 pm would have been the same time I had finished my bath! As soon as I made that connection, I burst out laughing until I was in tears!
It wasn’t long until some of my co-workers circled around wondering what was going on with me. I was normally a very quiet person, who usually kept to herself. I explained to a few of them what had happened, and although they thought it was unbelievably strange, nice and even a little funny, most were a little skeptical of it being some sort of “divine intervention”. It didn’t matter to me if it was just some crazy coincidence, but to this day I refer the incident as my call from “Jesus”.
Of course, it could have been ANYONE who could have left that message on my phone. It could have been a guy named Joe trying to sell me a newspaper subscription or someone asking why my credit card bill was late. It really didn’t matter to me what he was selling or what his real name was. His call still meant the world to me. As I look back on that day, I still feel grateful. That message left on my phone was truly a message of hope that I desperately needed to hear during that time of my life.
The next day I got another call. My coworker, Glenda called me up and left another message. I heard, a pretend, deep sultry voice that said: “Hi Julie baby, this is Elvis, and I love you too.”
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