“I've seen too much sacrifice to believe that God is behind all of it, and I've seen sacrifice that has no indicia of the hand of God at all. Loss is not always part of some greater plan explainable by reference to the actions of a divine being with a divine purpose.”

“I can't explain some of the things I've seen and...I've done some things I can't explain.”

“Now how can anybody look at that and not believe in God? I mean, how can anybody look at this and not believe there is some higher power, some divine force at work in the universe greater than Man, some god that created it, that created all this, that created us?”

“I've seen some things I can't explain and...I've done things I can't quite explain.”

“Even more richly than in His name and attributes, God has revealed Himself in His Word as the Triune God. In this revelation He reveals the great mystery, far beyond the comprehension of all creatures, that His simple Divine Essence consists in three Persons; and that not in such a way that each of the three persons would possess one part of the Divine Essence, so that by combining they would form the full God-head; but God is a simple Being, and thus is far from being a combination of parts. God consists not of three Persons, but in three Persons; the full Being of God is in the Father, and the same full Being is in the Son, and in the Holy Spirit. The Father is God; the Son is God, no less than the Father; and the Holy Spirit is God, of the same eternity, glory, and majesty as the Father and Son. Among the Divine Persons there is not a first or last, nor is one greater or less. And still there is but one, simple, Divine Being. God is Tri-une.”

“In some ways I admire Aunt Helen's unwavering certainty in God's divine plan. It must be comforting, to have faith like that. To believe so concretely that there's someone—something—out there watching guard, keeping us safe, testing us only with what we can handle. I've never believed in anything the way Aunt Helen believes in God.”