Young People Ask . . .
Does God Really Care About Me?
“I JUST didn’t think that it was fair,” said 24-year-old Louise, as she reflected on her early childhood during which her mother had suddenly grown sick and died. “I pitied myself. Why me? Why could others have mothers to love and not me? I wondered, ‘Didn’t God care about me?’”
Many young persons have suffered similar mental anguish. However, many more have lost a parent, not because of death, but because of divorce, separation or desertion. Estimates are that two out of every five children alive today will spend some of their childhood without one of their parents. Even if this is not your case, surely you see that our world is filled with misery caused by disease, wars, crime, child abuse, injustice and poverty. At times, doesn’t it seem that genuine love and trust have vanished? Even some who believe there is a God ask, ‘Does he really care about me?’
But, first of all, since no human has ever seen God, how can we be sure he even exists?
Evidence of a Designer Who Cares
His existence and care can be seen in the way our bodies are designed. For instance, take a good look at your hands. Do you see how easily they can hold this magazine and turn its pages? Each day you use your hands to perform over 1,000 functions! Your hand can be a twister, bender, pusher, puller or a firm grabber. A grown man can exert a pressure of 150 pounds (68 kg) with his right hand. But something else makes our hands unique.
Did you know that only human hands—your hands—are able to do precision work such as thread a needle or write with a pencil? Yes, only the human hand is designed with an opposing thumb that can touch the tip of the finger next to it. This ability enables you to use skillfully an artist’s brush, a wood-carver’s knife or a mathematician’s calculator. Isn’t such adeptness evidence of a Designer who wants us to be able to develop the ideas of our creative minds? How discouraging it would be if our minds could conceive beautiful artwork, but our hands couldn’t use a delicate artist’s brush! Have you ever tried to use an artist’s brush or a pencil by holding it without your thumb?
Because of its versatility and amazing capacity, the human hand has been described as the “instrument of instruments.” Does it seem reasonable to you that such a superbly designed instrument came about by blind chance or accident? Recently, highly skilled engineers developed an electrical artificial hand, which operates from the tiny impulses of the muscles in the arm stump. It imitates some of the movements of a normal hand. This was no small task! Much money, time and sophisticated technology were needed to create this as well as other substitute body parts. A number of body parts have been imitated by a relatively new science called bionics, making use of highly developed computer science. Yet one biomedical reporter stated in Science Digest: “In size, efficiency, sophistication and variety of functions there is no comparison between the best artificial device and the natural organ.”
“No comparison”! Just think, if the best of humankind’s modern technology is unable to produce a synthetic body part that can match the capability of the organ we are born with, doesn’t it seem obvious to you that the original must have been the product of a Designer with more than human wisdom?
Other features of our body also provide evidence of a Designer who cares. For instance, remember the last time you watched a rainbow, a sunset or a flower? Would you have enjoyed it as much if your vision were only in shades of black and white, as is the case with some animals? Also, consider how your sense of taste adds joy. Imagine if you couldn’t tell the difference between your favorite dessert and vegetables! Yet you could live without color vision, you could be well nourished without tasting the flavors of food. But doesn’t it seem that our Maker cares? He wants us to enjoy life, not merely to exist.
We can also see that God has tender feelings when we look at some of the qualities he implanted in various animals.
A God with Tender Feelings
Have you ever watched kittens playfully tousling one another and chasing everything from a ball of string to their own tail? Or maybe you’ve seen or read of otters zipping down their own otter-made mud slides and splashing into a pond. Maybe at a zoo you’ve rolled with laughter as monkeys put on their comedy act. But, really, who taught such humor to these little “comedians”? No one. It was an instinct with which they were born.
The same is true of the love of a mother for an infant. Certainly the Maker of these creatures himself must have tender feelings, including a sense of humor. He must be, as the Bible describes him, “the happy God.” He must have a sincere interest in each of us.—1 Timothy 1:11.
“But if all of this is true,” cried young Louise, quoted at the outset, “why did he let my mother die?” But why stop there? Why does any mother have to die? Think of the countless victims of violence and disease. Think of their helpless children. Yes, why is the world full of suffering?
Certainly someone powerful enough to create our vast universe could stop the suffering on earth. Since an abundance of evidence shows that God cares, then he must have some very important reasons for permitting these painful conditions. Well, several years after her mother died, Louise saw in her own life evidences that God cared for her. She found satisfying answers to those questions that were tearing at her heart. In the next issue of Awake!, these answers will be discussed. But she found even more—and just at the time that she needed it the most.
“I was at the point when I was ready to kill myself because of my grief, emptiness and lack of love,” admitted this young woman. After her mother’s death, she had been shuttled from one juvenile foster home to another and had received little affection. “But, in time, I realized that God was concerned about me and sensitive to my grief. I’m convinced he maneuvered circumstances in my life so that I came in contact with some of Jehovah’s Witnesses. I found real love among their congregations. These persons genuinely cared for me. I truly received a multitude of ‘mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers—yes, even homes,’ just as Jesus promised in the Bible. I saw how God was answering my prayers for help to cope with my problem. I then knew that God really does care about me.”—Mark 10:29, 30.
[Blurb on page 18]
Famed scientist Isaac Newton, after studying the design of the human thumb, wrote, “In the absence of any other proof, the thumb alone would convince me of God’s existence.” Why did he say this?
[Pictures on page 17]
Our bodies were designed so that we could not only live but enjoy life. Our eyes see in color, not just in black and white. The sense of taste adds to the joy of eating. Our hands can do precision work. All of this is evidence of a Designer who cares about us
The Creator, who instilled playful qualities into animals as well as implanted the love of a mother for her suckling, must himself have tender feelings
If these artificial imitations required high technology and skill of design, could we imagine the originals not having a highly skilled Designer?