Update #4 - 5/5/23

We are thrilled to announce the birth of our fifth daughter, Finley Claire Witt. Born May 4, 2023 at 11:23am, she weighed exactly 7 lbs, and measured 19 inches long. Her middle name, Claire, is in honor of her maternal grandmother’s family name, LaClaire. It took a long time to induce Kara, owing to her being a couple weeks early, but in the end, the birth was smooth and without complications. Kara and Finley are both resting and doing very well, and we hope to convince the doctors to let us go home today. It’s hard to feel whole without the rest of our girl gang around us!

A strange cloud casts its small shadow on this otherwise bright and happy occasion, though. As I write this, Kara is getting her chemo port put in here at the hospital. It is an unwelcome reminder of the reality that we face as we endure this season of trial. But I want to remind us all that for those of us who belong to Christ, nothing comes to us without the permission and PURPOSE of our loving Father. This cancer is not from Satan, that we should think of it as an attack from an enemy (beyond the fact that it exists because of sin). Nor is it some sort of demonic affliction, that we should “rebuke” it. Far be it from us to stand in moral judgment over Yahweh! He is the Sovereign over all creation! Nor should we presume to know the depths of His purpose and motives in any particular act. His ways are higher than ours; they are too lofty for me! We need only to TRUST His character. And we can only trust Him if we KNOW Him, which He has made possible by revealing the truth about Himself to us in His Word.

Here are some truths about God that we can know and cling to:I know that He loves Kara more than I ever could. I know that He is sovereign; He not only can control all things, He does. I know that as a follower of Christ, He is working all things together for our good and for His glory. I know that it is not unfair that we should endure seasons of suffering; God owes us nothing for our service to Him (as if giving His Son to save us from Hell were not enough!). I know that He is the Master, and we the servants; He is the Potter, we the clay. How can we say “why have you made me this way?” I know that He is rightly more interested in His own glory than my perception of “safety” in this life (and so should we). I know He has forgiven our sins and has already granted Kara and I eternal life through Jesus’ sacrifice. “The LORD is for me; I will not fear; What can man do to me?”

Eternity is a long time, and with a perspective like that, we can endure any “momentary, light affliction” if we know that it produces “an eternal weight of glory” for Him. But how do we know all that? How can we be sure these things are true? The Bible tells me so! Only two things in this world will last forever: the Word of God, and the souls of men. Both eternal, one finding the peace that passes understanding in the other.

Thank you all for your prayers!