It Is Well
by Bill Aumack
Hey boys and girls, I want to tell you a story today that happened a long time ago. This happened to a man named Horatio Spafford. Now, what kind of name is that? How would you like to be named Horatio Spafford? But that was his name. He was born here in the United States in the year 1828. That was a long time ago, almost 200 years ago, he was born. And as he got older, he moved to Chicago, where he started his law firm. He was a lawyer, and he got married. And he and his wife had four daughters. He was very active in his church. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church. He was an elder. He taught Sunday school was very active in his community.
And at one point, he and his wife were going to plan a trip across the ocean. That was quite a trip back in the day. At the time, his four daughters were ages 12 of the oldest, all the way down to 18 months of the youngest. So mom and dad and the four girls were in one this trip, and at the last minute, something came up in the office and dad couldn’t go, Horatio had to wait. But he wanted his wife and daughters to go, we sent them ahead. And he said, Let me meet you over there. So they went ahead, traveled to New York, they got on the ship and begin the journey.
Now, back then, you don’t just go straight across the ocean, because it’s too much open water. If something goes wrong, you’re kind of far away from land. So what they do is they when they leave New York, they go up along the coast along Canada, pass some islands, Iceland, Greenland, and then back down along the European coast. So that was what they were going to do. So there’s the boat took off. And they were headed kind of north up along the coast. They got to Newfoundland and an accident happened and their boat ran into another boat. And it sank in less than half an hour. And that’s a very quick amount of time for a boat to sink. Big boats usually take a long time to sink, sometimes hours and hours and hours, sometimes even days. But this boat sank very, very fast. The wife was saved, she was rescued by another boat was passing by. But unfortunately, the four girls didn’t make it. The water was very, very cold. And the currents were very, very swift. And they just they didn’t make it. And so she was picked up on a boat that was going kind of the same way they were. It was 10 days before she got the land over in Wales. And she sent a message to her husband. And back in the day when you use to telegraph you can only send a few words. So she sent two words, saved alone. And he knew what had happened. As quick as he could he got on a boat, made it over there and was comforted his wife and their grief.
They’re very sad. Because their daughters had passed, their hearts were hurting. They were sad. And they met with a very famous pastor at the time to Dwight L. Moody, a very, very famous pastor. In fact, we still use his messages in his sermons to talk about him today. And he met with this couple and he was amazed at how calm they were. Even in their their grief. And Horatio said, It’s okay. It is well was my soul. And Dwight L Moody knew what that meant. Because he trusted Jesus and he trusted God to take care of you. And even though he was sad, and even though he was hurting, and even though he he didn’t quite understand why this had happened to him. It was okay. Because Jesus was with him. Yeah, it hurt. And yeah, it was painful. But he knew it would be all right.
And sometimes that can happen to us. Things happen that make us hurt people we love die, or maybe a pet we love dies. Or it doesn’t even have to be a big thing. Sometimes it can be kind of a small thing. Maybe it’s a fight at school or we’re arguing with a friend or brother or sister. Somebody said something mean to us and and we hurt inside. But it’s okay because Jesus will help us make it through he’ll be with us will take care of us. And we know he’s got a good plan in the end. And so I just want you to remember that even when you’re hurting even when things are sad, even when things are crazy. You can talk could take Jesus and tell him, I’m hurting Jesus. And he’ll help. He’ll help. You may still hurt. But he’ll help you through. He’ll help things get better. He’ll help you make it. Alright.
Let’s pray. Dear Jesus, thank you so much for these boys and girls are grateful we have them. We’re grateful that we have you to help us when we’re hurting, when things don’t seem quite right, and we just don’t know what to do, Lord, we’re grateful that we can talk to you is to help us to remember that and to be with us and to keep us safe. Jesus name. Amen.
All right. Thank you boys and girls. We’ll see you next time.