The Song That Grief Could Not Silence

In 1873, Horatio Spafford stood at the railing of a ship crossing the Atlantic, staring down at the cold waters that had swallowed his four daughters just days earlier. The SS Ville du Havre had collided with another vessel and sank in twelve minutes. His wife Anna survived and sent him a two-sentence telegram from Wales: "Saved alone. What shall I do?"

Spafford boarded the next available ship. When the captain notified him they were passing over the spot where the wreck had occurred, he returned to his cabin and wrote the words that Christians have been singing for over a hundred and fifty years: "When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll — whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul."

That hymn was not written from a place of comfort. It was written from the deepest valley a parent can walk through. And yet Spafford did not write a song of despair. He wrote a declaration of hope — not hope that circumstances would improve, but hope anchored in the faithfulness of the Almighty who holds us even when the sea takes everything else.

Some of you are passing over your own wreckage this morning. Hope does not ask you to pretend the water is not deep. It asks you to trust the One who walks on it.