Sunrise at sea

Before I ever write my blog each week, I look at the date. You see, dates have a significance in our lives.  For me, the week of January 31 through February 3rd has much implication.

This year for part of our devotional reading, Jim and I are reading through a book with the back stories of hymns. Because I started attending church before I was even born, I know many of the hymns featured, but I don’t always know the story. It has been good to read again the words that seem so deep and full of substance. Today’s was no exception. The song was written by a grieving father, sailing to meet his wife who had survived a shipwreck. Their four daughters did not. He penned the words as he sailed near the spot where they had drowned. Yes, you guessed it, the song, “It is Well With My Soul.”

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul (Horatio Spafford, 1828-1888).

There is a lot to the story of the writer of this hymn, but for now, I am focusing on the words that soothed my soul in a time of great grief and distress. I had been widowed on February 3rd after a forty year marriage. Yesterday, I remembered that date, not with great sorrow, but a clutching remembrance of the loss of my husband, Bill, I felt at that time.  Two 1/2 years  later, God brought into my life a second chance at love when I met and married my second husband. We imagined years more together, but after only 17 months, he died suddenly. Here’s where the hymn comes in.

The news wasn’t good. There was nothing they could do for him. My dreams were shattered. There we sat in the stark hospital room with wires and lines snaking across the bed. His two sons, his sister, me, and my sister. I kept grasping Blair’s hand, hoping he would respond with a squeeze, but there was nothing. No response. While weeping with the rest of the family, I heard the familiar words, sung by my sister. When peace, like a river, attendeth my way….Such a comfort and reminder to me.

When people hear my story, they often don’t understand why this tragedy happened, and at first, I certainly didn’t understand. Looking back, though, I know I wasn’t alone and God’s plan for me. I learned His plan was different than those for my first two husbands. This morning I read in a devotional by Bob Hostetler, The Bard and the Bible. Today’s reading came from The Comedy of Errors and the quote he gives is so applicable to me as I ponder past memories. Every why hath a wherefore. (The Comedy of Errors, II,ii,45).

I understand the old fashioned words, because from birth I heard and learned to read the King James Bible. Some of you may not. Every why hath a wherefore means, “for what reason” or “to what purpose.”  Right now, I don’t have a why as to the deaths of loved ones only four years apart, but I know I may find out one day. Or when I have opportunity, I may not need to know. Make sense?

The hymwriter, Spafford, had life after the terrible incident of finding out his four daughters (all of his children) were gone. He continued to live and even had three more children. But he didn’t know any of that when he wrote the words to the song.

Just as we don’t know what the future holds for us, we can rest in those words, it is well with my soul. And when the storms, and losses come our way, we can remind ourselves of those words. Or those penned by Shakespeare, Every why hath a wherefore. 

I’m looking at the eastern sky and I see pinkness in the horizon. I pray you are comforted knowing it is well.