It took us three years to repair our sailboat. The chain plates holding the shrouds and holding up the mast were corroded, causing it all give way. But our woes with a broken mast were nothing compared to the agony endured by Horatio G. Spafford, writer of the hymn, “It is Well with My Soul”. In 1873 Spafford lost his four daughters to a shipwreck on the Atlantic Ocean. It was after this tragedy that the God of all comfort enabled him to write, “When sorrows like sea billows roll…it is well with my soul.”
How does one sing that “it is well,” in the face of such calamity? Spafford remembered God’s sovereignty and that He did not spare His Son, but gave Him up for us all (see Romans 8:32).
“Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,/ Let this blest assurance control,/ that Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,/ And hath shed His own blood for my soul.”
As God comforted him in his sorrow, Spafford has heartened countless believers with his song. May “God, who comforts the downcast” (2 Corinthians 7:6), give you peace.