Being a Christian today is not easy. There is so much negative press in the media. To believe in something that cannot be seen is almost anti-intellectual in many circles.

But let’s think about this for a minute. Don’t we believe in things that we can’t see all the time? Scientists are finding smaller and smaller particles within the atom. Some of these we can see with high-powered microscopes but many we cannot. We see evidence that they exist so we believe.

Are we able to see the wind? No, but we can feel it’s presence. We see it moving the leaves on the trees and the clouds in the sky. We know it exists even though we cannot see it.

So it is with God. We cannot visibly see Him but we see evidence of Him all around us.  We see Him in the complexity of the human body with each cell working together in magnificent ways.  We see the sun rising every day as it always does and the seasons come and go as they always do. The order of the world around us is comforting and mind-boggling at the same time.

There are “coincidences” that are timed so well as to be impossible to just happen randomly. Many of the stories in “Letters Out of Africa” are God “coincidences.”  I believe that there is no other explanation but that the events leading my friend, Shadrach to America were orchestrated by the hand of God. Nothing in my wildest dreams imagined I would be a part of this story. This was God’s plan. We were just willing participants as the plan unfolded.

Many people can say to the day when they began to believe in the existence of God. They had a special event, an “aha” moment when they came to know there was a God who cared about them. I never had a date in time that I could say was the beginning for me. It seems that I have always known that God was with me from my very beginning. I don’t remember a time that I didn’t believe. When I was very young, maybe 3 or 4 years old, I recall praying or really just talking to God and asking him to help me. I had done something that had upset my mother and she had sent me to my room. I never quite made it to my bedroom but was sitting at the top of the stairs asking God for my mom to forgive me and let me come back downstairs. Of course she did and she came to me moments later. All was right in my world.

Now yes, I would agree that this was an easy prayer for God to answer. He knew my mom and knew what her response to me would be. But no matter. I knew as a child that God was with me and He has stayed with me ever since. We have had our ups and downs. There have been times that I have been very angry with God. There have been times I have doubted Him but that sense of belief, that “knowing” down in my heart never left. As I look back on my life, through all my mistakes and wrong turns, I can see the hand of God guiding me back to the path he has set out for me.

I liken my journey with God to an old hymn that is a favorite of mine called “In the Garden”. The first verse reads, “I come to the garden alone while the dew is still on the roses, and the voice I hear falling on my ear, the Son of God discloses. And he walks with me, and he talks with me, and he tells me I am his own; and the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known.” The truth is though that others can walk with God and know Him too, just like me. Just open your heart to see the evidence of the unseen. Seek Him and you will find Him or rather He will find you. Will life be easy? No, it still will be tough. Will you never mess up again? No, we are still broken people who will never quite be fixed until we’re in heaven. But I can tell you that your life will be sweeter and richer than anyone could know. I wouldn’t give it up for anything.