Is Jesus Real Like Me?
Reflections on Life’s Seasons
“Is Jesus real, like me? Just tell me the truth and I’ll decide what to do with it.”
Why I wrote this book…..
I realized I had written a group of poems tied together by a theme rooted in my own life, and I knew I wanted to turn them into a book. I also hoped to honor my mother after her passing in a small but meaningful way. We do not live our lives in a vacuum. These poems explore rejection, misunderstanding, and the search for belonging.
“Belongs in schools and library collections”. — An Early Reader
“A powerful testimony of a life’s unique path.” — An Early Reader
What Readers are saying…
About the Book
Poems of memory, doubt, and the search for belonging.
This intimate collection moves from moments of family life--scrapbooks, hydrangeas, pork chops and summer aloe into questions of faith, identity, and belonging. Rooted in memories and a daughter's conversation with her mother, these poems ask, "Is Jesus real, like me?" They refuse easy answers, navigating shame, otherness, and the peculiar solace of inherited belief. Through plain, observant language and recurring domestic images, the book traces a spiritual arc: rootedness, rupture, searching, and the slow, imperfect work of reconciliation. Readers will find poems that comfort and unsettle in equal measure, offering companionship to anyone wrestling with doubt, grieving a loved one, or seeking a faith that can hold both questions and grace.
Author Bio
Sharon Olvera is a writer and mixed-media artist whose work explores memory, faith, and the quiet spaces of family life. Rooted in the landscapes of Southern California and the questions carried from childhood, her poems move through seasons of doubt, tenderness, and belonging. Her work emerges from a contemplative, childlike Christian tradition, drawn to the sacred in the ordinary and the stories held in everyday objects. Is Jesus Real Like Me? is her first collection.
