Peace Like a River: Horatio Spafford and Job 1:21

Some songs are born in the calm. This one was born on the water, after the worst news a father can receive.

Horatio Spafford was a Chicago lawyer and church elder. In 1871 the Great Chicago Fire destroyed much of his property investment. Two years later, in November 1873, his wife Anna and their four daughters sailed for Europe on the steamship Ville du Havre. Business kept him in Chicago. The ship was struck by another vessel and sank, and all four girls (Annie, Maggie, Bessie and Tanetta) were lost. Anna survived and cabled him two words: "Saved alone."

According to the Library of Congress and Wikipedia, Spafford then travelled to join his wife, and as his ship passed near the place where his daughters died, he was inspired to write the hymn "It Is Well with My Soul." Its first lines speak of peace like a river and sorrows like sea billows.

Job knew that same hard ground. Job 1:21 (KJV): "Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD."

The lesson is not that grief is small or that faith removes tears. It is that worship can still rise when everything else has been taken. Many Celestians know this too, singing hymns through seasons of loss and trusting that God is still near.

Prayer point: Ask God for peace for anyone in your family or parish who is walking through loss today.

Over to you:
- Has a hymn or song ever carried you through a painful season? Which one, and why?
- How can our parishes better stand with members who are grieving?

Sources: Wikipedia (Horatio Spafford); Library of Congress, The American Colony in Jerusalem exhibition; Job 1:21, KJV.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons (Horatio Spafford portrait, public domain)