Does everything happen for a reason?

Does everything happen for a reason, or is everything simply a matter of cause and effect?

I read the dictionary.com definitions and it seems cause and reason can be used almost interchangeably.

I assume when someone says, “everything happens for a reason”, they are stating there is divine intervention in everything that happens and the intervention is justified, and also that we don’t always understand the divine.

Many physicists consider cause and effect to be a purely physical matter and that love, being of the human mind cannot play the part.
My thought is that the very vibration of matter, electromotive force, magnetism, etc. is by it’s very nature intelligent, and that intelligence brings love to life.

I think of the divine as all encompassing matter and the space it exists in. I also think of the divine as love, pure and simple. I believe the cosmos would be here whether we are here or not. We are here with all of the rest of life and it seems to me that love “causes” all of life to exist. Love seems to be the “reason” that evolution can take place. It seems to be the reason that a tree can fall down and die and a new one springs up to take it’s place. It seems to be the reason that babies are born. Love seems miraculous in it’s ability to organize and promote life.

That doesn’t mean I don’t believe in anything that is beyond my comprehension or senses. We are very limited in our sensing abilities of sight, smell, hearing, touch, and taste. It may be possible that we are much more capable of sensing things than our five senses would seem to allow.

Cause and effect doesn’t describe any divine purpose. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction doesn’t either. So, does everything happen for a reason?
I am sure I have not answered the question, though I will say after pondering this, it seems to me that it does!

Life, or love, seems to give us what we need even though sometimes life is horrible and unfair. It’s just that the far reaching effects of love, and life are incomprehensible to me.