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Written by Sparky Pritchard Friday, 06 August 2010 14:11

The news was painful and shocking for John and Pat Feinberg.  The doctors had informed the couple that Pat had been diagnosed with Huntington’s Chorea – a genetically-transmitted disease which causes deterioration in the brain leading to a decline in physical and psychological abilities.  Their hearts were racing as fast as their minds as the truth of this began to sink in.  The diagnosis had far-reaching ramifications.  Not only would this affect Pat’s health, but if one parent has the gene that causes Huntington’s, then their children were at risk as well – a 50-50 chance of suffering from this debilitating ailment.

Questions began to plague John’s mind.  “Why hadn’t this been discovered earlier?”  “Someone should have warned us.”  Curiosity got the best of him, and he requested to see a copy of Pat’s mother’s medical charts just to see if there had been a history of this in the family.  There was!  But the rest of the family was never told.

Feinberg was angry as the diagnosis of Pat’s mom had been made five years before this couple had even met!  If he had only been aware of this, things might have been different.  Would he have married this girl?  Would they have avoided having children?

In his book The Many Faces of Evil, Feinberg writes of his realization that the “hidden knowledge” was, in reality, a gift of grace from God:

“For twenty years that information had been there, and at any time we could have found it out. Why, then, did God not give it to us until 1987?

“As I wrestled with that question, I began to see his love and concern for us.  God kept it hidden because he wanted me to marry Pat, who is a wonderful wife.  My life would be impoverished without her, and I would have missed the blessings of being married to her had I known earlier.

“God wanted our three sons to be born.  Each is a blessing and a treasure, but we would have missed that had we known earlier.  And God knew that we needed to be in a community of brothers and sisters in Christ at church and at the seminary who would love us and care for us at this darkest hour.

“And so he withheld that information, not because he accidentally overlooked giving it to us, and not because he is an uncaring God who delights in seeing his children suffer.  He withheld it as a sign of his great care for us.  There is never a good time to receive such news, but God knew that this was exactly the right time” (John S. Feinberg, The Many Faces of Evil, Crossway Books, 2004, pp. 464-465).

It is always better to know the God of grace and trust Him, than it is to know all the facts and worry instead.