Another Blessing from God

Heather and I are excited to share with you some great news--we are expecting again! Lord willing, we will welcome Baby #3 into our home in mid-August. This morning’s 19-week ultrasound revealed a healthy baby. Unfortunately, due to the baby’s position, we were not able to definitively determine the baby’s gender (the technician’s opinion is that the baby is a boy). Regardless, we feel very blessed about the possibility of welcoming another child to our home.

One of my two brothers was present with me as Micah died. In that hospital room immediately following Micah’s death, my brother asked to read from Romans 11, verses 33-36.
“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!
Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?
Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?
For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen”

I have thought a lot about our path and this passage since Micah’s death. God’s path for us over the past two years is never something that we could have predicted. If our lives were up to us, we would still have Micah with us. If it were up to us, our path would have taken different turns than paths to emergency rooms and funeral homes and cemeteries. If it were up to us, we would have walked the path of loving our oldest son for longer than just those nine sweet months.
We admit that we don’t know why God would give us our oldest son, then take him away from us just as quickly. His reasons for taking Micah are still so very confusing to us. Why would God give us Micah, then take him away, only to give us two more children? Why aren’t God’s ways simpler? Why involve so very much heartache? Clearly, God’s reasons are “beyond tracing out.”
It is easy to say that God, in his eternal wisdom and love, has given us Owen and now, Lord willing, Baby #3. It is difficult to say that God was right in taking Micah so soon. But if God is the God of all circumstances, then God was not asleep when Micah died. Instead, Romans 11 tells us that God, in his eternal wisdom and knowledge, took Micah away. Be happy for us, my friends, that God’s judgments appear to include provision for Heather and me to enjoy the opportunity to steward the life of yet another of God’s children. But also rejoice with me, friends, that God’s ways are eternally wise, that even in the death of our little boy, we can trust His goodness. Even when our grief is greater than what we can seem to bear, we can trust that God is actually working through our pain and the suffering in ways that are too great for us to possibly understand.