I contemplate the existence of God all of the time. I have asked myself the question over and over ‘How can I know that God exists?’ Friends and family have told me why they believe in God and why they do not believe in God, but it doesn’t matter to me what anyone else says (even the Pope). I have to believe for my own reasons. For a long time I waited for an epiphany. I wanted some miracle to happen that would prove to me that God exists. Finally, one day I was driving home from dinner with my husband and kids. It had just rained and where we live we have the most beautiful rainbows. As we were driving home one of these magnificent colored arcs appeared. Now, I have seen hundreds of rainbows in my life, but in that moment I thought to myself ‘Rainbows are proof of God’. To me rainbows are such a miracle, and I don’t care what the scientific explanation is for a rainbow. They are still a complete miracle to me. They are so breathtakingly beautiful. That moment started me thinking on what are other reasons I believe in God. So here are my top 10 reasons I believe in God.

10. The Sun – One of my favorite things to do in the morning is to walk outside on our deck and look at our lovely view and feel the Suns warmth on my face and shoulders. I tip my face towards the Sun and say ‘Thank you God!’. Just letting my mind relax and focus on the wonderful warm feeling from the Sun is so blissful. Without the Sun our world would not be what it is and to contemplate how our solar system works and how the planets revolve around the Sun and why they revolve around the Sun is just baffling to me. It is truly a miracle.

9. The Moon – The Sun lights up our day, but the Moon lights up our nights. There is something so magnificent about how the Moon goes through its cycles. There are times when I glance out and see the Moon and don’t even recognize it as the Moon. Once I came home and looked out the window and I thought there was some sort of celestial event happening. I saw this giant orange light in the sky, it almost looked like a fire in the sky. I just sat and stared trying to figure out what it was I was looking at. I called to my husband and as he entered the room I realized it was the moon. It had been distorted by some clouds passing over it. I had to laugh at myself for not recognizing the planet that I see almost every night. It’s interesting what a special relationship my kids have with the Moon. It was definitely one of both of their first words and they always point it out to me. When it is big and full it is such a joy for all of us to see. A complete miracle.

8. Flowers - Flowers are the Eart’hs decorations, each flower is a great masterpiece. The colors, the aromas and the shapes. Completely amazing, how different each flower is, yet how beautiful. People always ask ‘what’s your favorite flower?’. Well, for me, it depends on what’s blooming that particular week or where I am. When I see the first crocus of the year sticking their little heads out of the snow, I get completely giddy. The aroma of lilacs send me to Nirvana. The exotic shape of the iris would make you think that they are delicate, yet throw a clump in your backyard and they will take over. I even like dandelions, mostly because my kids get such a kick out of them. My daughter showed me a picture the other day of the praying mantis that looked just like a pink orchid. I could not believe it, so bizarre yet so beautiful.

9. Rainbows - Ahh rainbows…I love them. First of all, I love the rain, especially a summer rain that cools off a hot day. The rain is my main course and the rainbow is my dessert. Our house has great views to the east. We often see complete double rainbows. Yes, there is a very logical reason we see rainbows. Rainbows are seen when raindrops, falling in the distance, bend and bounce sunlight back towards your eye. Each color of sunlight is bent and bounced in a slightly different direction. The colors separate around the bright edge of the reflection. Here’s the miracle ‘each color of the sunlight’. Is that not a complete miracle that the color of sunlight is actually made up of all those different colors.

7. Laughter - There is nothing more contagious than laughter and there is nothing that makes you feel better. I can be in the darkest mood and sound of my children giggling pulls me right into the light. Try this experiment at your next gathering. Take one of your friends into another room and start laughing. I bet within 10 minutes every person will gravitate into that room, keep laughing and just watch everyones reaction. You will have everyone laughing and they won’t even know what they are laughing about, but no one will care because it just feels so great to be in a room full of laughing people. What a true gift from God.

6. Tears - It is so perplexing to me why we actually cry. I understand feelings of sorrow and grief, but why do we cry? Why does our body produce a watery substance from our eyes, when we feel sad or sometimes extremely happy? I think tears are like rain. They are a gift from heaven.

5. Music - Sweet, sweet music. Music can bring up so many emotions and so many memories. There are songs that I associate with different times in my life. When certain songs play on the car radio when I am driving, like Eric Clapton’s “Bell Bottom Blues”, I can not leave the car until the song is over. It brings up such feelings of nostalgia. Music is so healing. just listening to music can change your mood in a matter of minutes. I know when my kids are having a rough time all I have to do is start singing there favorite song and they forget all of their worries. Thank you God for music.

4. Eyes - Eyes, they view this beautiful world and they are beautiful to view. Each set is so unique and so wonderful to gaze at. You can pretty much tell what kind of life a person has led by looking deep into their eyes. The eyes are so telling of what a person is all about.

3. Birth - From conception to birth the whole process of creating a baby is so incredible. How those little bundles of love start from a couple of tiny cells is miraculous. How the women’s body does exactly what it needs to do to give the little create a place to grow and thrive is mind boggling. How could this happen by some freak of nature. How can anyone believe that this live just happens because of some random coincidence of chemical reactions. I just don’t buy it.

2. The Universe - Just thinking about the Universe hurts my head. There is so much we do not know about the Universe and I’m not sure we will ever now. It is a complete mystery. I love reading all the different theories of how the Universe was created and what is happening ‘out there’ today. Well here’s one of my theories. The Universe is God, the whole thing, including us. We are like tiny cells of God.

1. Love - And the number 1 reason I believe in God, is ‘LOVE’. The most wonderful thing that we humans have. I start my day every day thinking about how lucky I am, because of all the people in my life that I love and all the people that love me. I remember asking my Mother when I was a child if we were rich. She always answered, ‘Yes we are rich, rich in love’. She was right.