The last man on the earth sat in the room. Suddenly he heard a knocking. Who could it be at this time of night?
He got out of his recliner and limped to the door. Who he opened it to did not have a face. Instead, it was shadowed. But the voice could not be smoother.
"Hello Nicholas," the voice said.
Nick tilted his head back and leaned in, trying to see past the shadows and into the face of the man.
"Who are you? What do you want?" he said, voice slightly quivering.
"It seems you have missed my coming," the person said, quite amused.
"Your coming?"
"Yes."
Who could this be? And what the hell was he talking about "his coming"?
A moment of silence passed as both persons stood there at the door.
"Well, are you not going to invite me in, Nicholas?"
Nick stepped back from the door to let the man pass. Instead of walking past him, the man made a kind of hovering motion, gliding past him smoothly. He sat down on Nick's faded red couch. The blinds behind him were open, causing the sunset's light to continue to shadow the man's face. Nick went over to close them. When he looked at the stranger's face, it was still impossibly shadowed.
The wrinkle remained in his forehead as he asked, "What do you mean by 'Your coming', sir?"
"Haven't you noticed?"
"Noticed what?" Now he was getting tired of playing the stranger's game.
"No one is left on Earth, Nicholas."
The wrinkle disappeared, leaving Nick's eyes wide with shock. Could this be true? Could I really be the last human on Earth? Nick thought to himself.
Surely there must be one other human left.
"How do you know this?" he asked, skeptically, expecting the man to fess up to being a liar.
There was a slight pause, and then the man said, "Because I am God."
Nick nearly swore his heart stop for a minute. After it started back up again, he jumped up and ran out the door. He went to the apartment next to him, knocking wildly.
"No one is there, Nicholas," God said.
He spun around to find the man standing calmly behind him.
"How did you get here so fast?" He asked breathlessly and, without waiting for an answer, Nick ran down the stairs, down the street, past the deserted, brightly-lit, 24-hour convenient store, and to the house down the street that had all the lights on, toys in the front yard. He knocked frantically, knowing it was useless. No one answered.
"No one is there, Nicholas," God repeated.
Nick slid against the door to the concrete step, heaving.
"Do you believe me?"
Nick shook his head; he refused to believe this. How could every person on the planet have disappeared?
The coming...
It dawned on him. Didn't he say something about a coming? He can't be God though, Nick thought, could he?
"You're God?" He asked, starting to catch his breath.
"I am."
Nick let that sink in for a minute. He hadn't been to church since his mother had passed away three years ago. He had really only gone because his mother had pleaded with him to go, that he needed Christ in his life. He went along with it because he loved her so much, but along the way, he had found Christ. It was like a wind had blown into his heart. But this wind was warm, not cold. It warmed his heart so. But, when his mother had died, so had the warmth. Maybe it had just been something else.
But here stood proof. Proof of what his mother had told him about, what the preacher had told of. He had come, and he had taken everyone else. Why not him?
"Are you mad at me, Nicholas?" God asked, truly sincere.
That thought had not crossed his mind before. Could he be mad at God? He had every right to be. After all, his mother had not deserved to die. In fact, she was the most deserving to live. She loved God, loved her neighbors, gave charity and offering at church, and had raised him and his sister up right after their dirt bag of a father had left when he was just four years old. She was a hero. Why did God have to take her away so suddenly?
"It was her time, Nicholas. She was ready to come spend eternity with me."
How did he do that? Nick wondered, but more important was what He had just said. His mother had gone on to Heaven? The weight on his heart lifted and he felt the warmth swoop back in to take its place.
Suddenly, the shadows lifted off of God's face. Nick stared in awe. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. God reached down for Nick's hand.
Nick reached up to the Savior. The Sun became so bright it enveloped them. The warmth in his heart grew astronomically. The next thing he knew, Nicholas was in Paradise.