Hello, let me tell you a story about my life. Who am I you might ask, well my name is Thadeous. Most people just call me Thad. My story is not a lot different than most average peoples’ stories, at least until that day I met Him. Who is this Him you ask? Jesus of Nazareth that’s Him! Something in me changed that day, I would never be the same. I am a Samaritan by birth, my whole life I lived in a small town called Sychar. It was a great small village, everyone knew everyone. I was once married to this wonderful lady, I loved her so much. Things didn’t work out with us though, as much as I loved her, she couldn’t seem to love herself. Her life was consumed with finding that in her. She searched this whole town, but never once found herself worth loving. For years I would tell her over and over how great she was, even after we were no longer together but there was always a hole that no one could fill. Then something crazy happened, one evening me and some friends were outside just talking about our day, looking forward to the next when we heard her coming, she was shouting at the top of her lungs “Come see a man that told me everything I’ve ever did, this could be the Messiah!” I had never seen her like this before, there was a joy she had never had. My first thought was how could this be, I had just seen her heading out of town to get water less than an hour ago, how can this change happen so quickly. This was the happiness she was longing for her whole life, and in a matter of minutes she had found it. I thought to myself, I have to go see this man who had finally brought joy into her life. I must meet Him! So, I did just that, I followed her back to the well where she said He was. Honestly though I went with questions in my mind, who could this be, what has He said to her that shifted her to this joyful woman I had never seen. Could this really be the Messiah, or just another smooth talker she had fallen for. She was known for that; it didn’t take much to have her act crazy you know. But something inside me said that this time was different, this time something happened that was not like the past. Something about her had changed. So, I had to see what that something was. So off I went, and I was not alone everyone followed her, I was not the only one who saw the change, we all did! It was a short walk to the well where she said this man was, and the closer we go to it the more peace I began to feel, the more joy that began to stir in my soul. It was strange, I had never myself felt this way, it was if I had walked into a place where nothing bad had ever happened, my focus had shifted to only things that were good, only happy moments, pure thoughts. I thought where am I and who is this Man. Some fully believed her when she said this, but me, I was still a little skeptical, I knew her, I was married to her, I needed to know more about this Man. We asked Him to stay with us, and He agreed, He was with us for 2 days. And those two days were the greatest two days of my life. Not once did He try and convince anyone of who He was. Not once did He ever say anything that would make us uncomfortable. He simply loved on each one of us. The comfort that came from His mouth was so pleasing. I had never in my life felt so loved. People who had been sick came to Him and left well; tormented people left His presence with clear minds. I had never seen such in a person before in my whole life! This was the Messiah; the Chosen One we had heard about. He was in our town; He chose to come to our small town! This was amazing. Over those 2 days my love for Him became something you could only imagine. That feeling I had when I first saw Him at the well continually grew and grew. A love I didn’t know I had began to flow from me. I never wanted to leave where He was. That day I chose that I would follow Him wherever He went, and that is exactly what I did. After 2 days He departed, a few of us from town left with Him. Everywhere He traveled, we were in the crowd, you don’t read about us by name, but we were there. We saw lame people walk, blind people see, deaf people hear. It was amazing! But the crazy thing is those miracles were not the most amazing things that happened. Everywhere we went people felt that same joy I had felt back at the well. He loved people right where they were,never asking them to change their ways first, He simply loved them. And through that love, people turned their lives around, they changed without even trying to change. People began to love like He was loving them! That was the true miracles that happened on this journey we were on. I’ve learned this through following Him these years. The healings were and are amazing and I love seeing this. But what was truly amazing was His desire to just be with those that loved Him. He spent more time with 12 people than anyone else. But He also always found time to say hello to me. And I felt just as important as those 12. Well, that’s my story, it’s a story of redemption, a story of finding a love I didn’t even know I was looking for. My story is your story.