Overview
It is a parent's greatest fear, and it happened to Ben and Ann Witherington in January 2012. Their daughter, Christy—whom by God's grace they brought into this world and raised into mature adulthood, bearing her burdens and rejoicing in her triumphs—suddenly died at age 32.
What does one do in the face of an unbearable sadness? What Ben and Ann did is this, as Ben put it: "I was determined from day one after Christy's death to be open to whatever positive thing there might be to glean from this. I cling by my fingernails to the promise of Romans 8:28 that God works all things together for good for those who love him." And so immediately—within days of Christy's death—Ben began blogging about his grief and his theology of grief. The response was overwhelming. Parents who suffered tragedy and those who had not agreed: here were keen, realistic, personal, and Christ-centered reflections on grief.
For this eBook, Ben and Ann have added personal reminiscences about Christy and more theological reflections. It is a remarkable account of one couple's grappling with love, life, God, and grief in the immediate aftermath of their daughter's death—both a journal of grief and a testimony of hope in the face of life's deepest heartaches.
Table of Contents
• Prologue: When a Daughter Dies (Harbinger)
• Chapter 1: Was This God's Will? (Birth)
• Chapter 2: "Comforting" Words that Are Simply Not True (Baptism)
• Chapter 3: What Good Grief Looks Like (Travels)
• Chapter 4: Why Does Death Continually Surprise Us? (Graduation)
• Chapter 5: The Paradise Paradox (Marriage)
• Chapter 6: Hypersensitive Grief (Work)
• Chapter 7: Post-Mortem Prayer (Christmas)
• Chapter 8: The Way of Grace (Death)
• Chapter 9: "Death Be Not Proud"
• Epilogue: The Presence of an Absence
• Appendix 1: Eulogy for Christy Ann Witherington
• Appendix 2: Scholarship Fund
