There is no God! (Psalm 14:1)

When I first came to Saint Marys our church sponsored a “Mom’s Morning Out” program here at the church. My office at the time was over in the old educational building and twice a week I would see these young mothers walk past my office door to drop off their children in our nursery for a few hours. One day, one of the mothers knocked on my door and asked if I had a free moment. I welcomed her in and she proceeded to tell me that she was experiencing a sense of guilt as she was dropping her child off at a church twice a week and she herself was an atheist. Already late for an appointment, I invited her to come back later in the week to talk.

The woman returned two days later. For about an hour I listened to a very long litany of complaints. Finally, I said, “You seem to be very angry at God.” This was right after her telling me “with all do respect I believe that God is just a fairy tale created out of the longings of people who call themselves Christians.” I repeated my earlier statement twice. “You seem to be very angry at God.” “Yes I am,” she said. Once again, I said nothing but simply listened and waited. I could see it happening before my very eyes as her expressions on her face seemed to change as her response began to sink in. If she were so angry at God, then God must exist after all. Nothing was said about that, but I could see it on her face. She then looked at her watch. I knew that our time had ended. Not wishing to make her uncomfortable, I did not offer to pray. She thanked me for my time and left. I soon learned that the family moved to Connecticut the following month.

At least three years later I was entertaining a group of ministers for lunch here in Saint Marys. As we walked to the waterfront that day, I heard the sounds of a horn honking at me and a car pulled up to the curb and a window rolled down and there she was. My atheist friend had returned to see me. With a big smile on her face, she said, “Pastor Rick, I think you remember me, I just wanted you to know that I found God!” I rejoiced with her briefly and welcomed her to come and tell me all about it. I have never seen her again. My colleagues of course wanted to know more and one of them after hearing the story said this, “I guess she found out that it’s pretty hard to be angry at a fairy tale!”