My "I know God lives" experience

Several weeks ago, my friend, Beth, and I drove to Bishop, California for a funeral of a friend's dad, Dave. Dave was a good man- robust, interesting, stoic, quiet. He was fine one day, had a stroke, and quickly passed away. Dave and Lorrel had six daughters. One of their daughters, Melanie, was shot and killed by her boyfriend when she was 21 years old.

Beth and I stayed at Kay's house. Kay is the mom of some of our friends growing up and is like a mom to so many people in Bishop. Kay is one of the most fascinating women I've ever met. But that's a story for another day.

Anyway, on a Saturday afternoon, Beth, Kay and I went to Vons grocery store. As we were standing in line, I felt my Tiffany earring falling out. I watched it fall to the floor, bounce, hit Kay's shoe, and disappear.

"My earring!" I said. To make a long story short, we got the store manager to help us move all kinds of displays looking for that earring, to no avail. So I said a short prayer. Now first of all, it makes me insanely crazy when people talk about how they lose their keys and they said a prayer and Heavenly Father helped them find the keys. I always think, "Whatever! God has no time to help the child being raped and tortured but he has time to find your stupid keys?" But here was my prayer:

"Dear God. This is not about the earrings because I know you have bigger fish to fry. But if you help me find my earring, I'll know you're really there. Amen."

So we left Vons without my earring. We walked out of the store, through the parking lot, got into Beth's car and drove back to Kay's, then walked up a long driveway, through a garage, up some stairs into her family room, up more stairs to the dining room... And then I heard Beth behind me say, "Is this your earring?"

And sure enough, it was my earring! Beth had found it on the step leading up to the dining room. Now how the heck did that happen? All I can think of is that the earring somehow ended up on Kay's shoe or her pants and it stayed with her through all those places I mentioned above and fell off her body at a time that Beth would find it. Highly weird and unlikely and a grand way for God to let me know that he was answering my prayer.

I said another quick prayer of thanks: "Dear God. It wasn't about the earring. Thanks for letting me know you're there. Amen."

And that's how I know that God is up there listening to me. He loves me. On my scariest and darkest days, He's right there next to me. He's given me some huge challenges, He's seen me experience desperation and sadness and sickness and disappointment. For some reason, this is my path. But He loves me and He has a plan for me, and he's watching out for me. And now, even when I have bad moments, I go back to that experience and it helps.