People sometimes ask me how I know God exists, how I know God cares about me (and each of us) personally, not just in an abstract or communal way.  

Here’s how I know. Simply put, every bad thing that has ever happened to me has had some element of grace to it, some mitigating force that showed compassion or made the trial easier to bear.

When a tornado flattened the town where my parents, my brothers and their families live, all of my kin were miraculously spared both personal harm and property damage. A block away from each of their homes there were houses that were simply no longer there, that had been ripped up from their foundations and scattered to the wind.

I’ll never forget that. I’ll never forget the sight of Mom’s house, perfectly fine, and, just across the street, an empty hole where the grocery store used to be.

When I look back on my life in search of clear moments of divine intervention that is the one that stands out the most. To me, it’s a big, bold sign that not only is there an overriding intelligence in the universe but that it is ultimately a compassionate one.

Though the tornado that spared my kin is the evidence that always springs to mind first, it is by no means the only time the universe has shown me unnatural compassion. I have lived through many things that I shouldn’t have survived, experiences I knew beyond any shadow of a doubt that I didn’t have the strength for.  

Esophageal manometry is one of them. That experience is easily the worst 45 minutes of my life and began with what can only be described as the longest, most painful two minutes I’ve ever experienced. I didn’t get me through that.  Something much bigger and stronger than me got me through the pain of that experience to the blissful end.

When people ask me how I know, I point to those experiences. But I also point to the world around me.  

It seems to me that the more we learn about the human body and the human mind, the more impressive the engineering becomes. Even on a wider scale, we find that the more we learn about the universe at large, the more apparent it is that the design is not just functional but downright elegant. The web of interconnection that sustains and recycles life also speaks to a grand design, and by extension, a grand designer.

All these proofs are very personal ones. Others may disagree. Or they may have their own proofs that are vastly different from mine.  But when asked how I know something, I have only my own knowledge and experiences to draw on, just my own personal proofs. And those have taught me that not only does God exist but that He cares about each of us personally.

That is how I know.