Baltimore Ravens tight end Benjamin Watson is known for sharing his perspective on race relations and faith, but in a recent Facebook post the NFL star got even more personal, discussing his grandmother’s recent death — and the unforgettable lessons she taught him about God.
“My grandma went home today. She fought the good fight, she finished the course, she kept the faith,” Watson wrote on Oct. 29. “As we mourn her loss tonight I am overwhelmed with a joyful sadness, a comforting pain, and a hopeful despair. Life has not ended for her. On the contrary, it has only just begun.”
The football player went on to share the eight words his grandma would often tell him at the end of conversations: “What God has for you is for you” — a simple lesson that has stuck with him.
“In other words, Benjamin, YOU fight the good fight, YOU finish the course, YOU keep the faith and YOU trust God to give you what He wants and lead you where He desires you to go,” Watson wrote, summarizing the lesson embedded in that statement. “No one can alter, add or subtract from God’s plans for you. Only He is omniscient and omnipotent. Rest in his sovereignty.”
He continued, “Her words will forever ring true.”
Watson also said that he had dreaded his grandmother’s impending death throughout his adult life, but that he knows she is in heaven with God and that, as a result, he will one day see her again.
“Right now I can only imagine the smile on her face as she is overcome by His great love,” he wrote. “As she meets the heroes of the faith and takes her place among them. As she worships with the fullness of her being in the heavenly realms Oh what a sight it must be!”
Watson followed up his Oct. 29 message with another post on Nov. 5, thanking his followers and supporters for their prayers and support and revealing that his grandma’s funeral was held the previous day.
“We miss her but are comforted because we know she is enjoying her reward!” he wrote. “Thank you all for your prayer, support and condolences! It means so much.”
Watson is the author of “Under Our Skin: Getting Real about Race. Getting Free from the Fears and Frustrations that Divide Us.,” a book about faith and the racial divide in America; his insightful social media posts about these subjects have repeatedly gone viral over the past few years.
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