Ben Witherington on Grief

The Courier Journal as a lovely piece on Ben Witherington III concerning the tragic death of his daughter Christy entitled Faith & Works.

The interview concludes this way:

“God doesn’t promise you a rose garden,” said Witherington. In recent weeks, he has been teaching on the gospel of Mark and its many passages indicating Jesus’ followers would suffer as he did. Parents have no guarantee, he acknowledged, that they will see their children grow to full maturity.

“We don’t know why this happened,” he said. “There’s some mystery.”

Part of the grief in the meantime, Witherington said, is the “neverness” of things that won’t happen — never seeing Christy married or having children of her own.

But he remains convinced Jesus will some day say to Christy something similar to what he said to a dead girl in the gospel of Mark: “Christy, get up.”