I recently read the story of Katie Zacharia, who has publicly shared that she was approximately 20 to 30 minutes away from a scheduled abortion when a Christian counselor called her biological mother and encouraged her to consider adoption instead. Katie was placed for adoption as a newborn and later met her biological mother as an adult.
Today, many people know her because of her public career, but that is not what stands out to me.
What stands out is a phone call.
One person took the time to reach out. One mother made a difficult decision. One child was given a chance at life. None of them could have known what the future would hold.
Some see coincidence. I see God’s hand at work.
Scripture tells us that God knows us even before we are born. I cannot help but think of Jeremiah 1:5: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.” If that is true, then God already knew the plans He had for her life long before anyone else did.
To me, this is a reminder that God can use ordinary people in extraordinary ways. A conversation. A phone call. A word of encouragement. We may never know how God will use our actions or how far their impact may reach.
That is why I see stories like this as a testament to God’s providence. The counselor likely had no idea what would become of that child. The mother could not see decades into the future. But God could.
Sometimes a single decision can change the course of a life; maybe the world.
When people ask why I believe God exists, I find it difficult to give a simple answer. I believe by faith. When I think about the human body and how its many systems work together, or when I look at the order and beauty of nature, I see evidence of design rather than accident.
I have always loved a quote from the movie Miracle on 34th Street: “Faith is believing in things when common sense tells you not to.” I still like it, but it was speaking to another matter, not God. The fact is, common sense tells me God exists.
I know others point to suffering, disease, storms, and the death of seemingly innocent people and ask, “If there is a God, why is the world so unjust?”
The Bible never ignores that question. Job asked it. David asked it in the Psalms. Jeremiah asked it. Scripture records those questions honestly. For me, the presence of suffering does not erase the evidence of God’s presence any more than the presence of beauty explains everything about Him.
I don’t have all the answers. But I believe faith is not the absence of questions. Faith is trusting God even when some questions remain unanswered.
Common sense points me toward belief, even though I can’t answer every question.
