The Song That Sailed Over a Grave

In November of 1873, Horatio Spafford stood on the deck of a ship crossing the Atlantic and stared down at the cold water beneath him. Somewhere in that dark expanse, his four daughters had drowned just days earlier when the SS Ville du Havre collided with another vessel and sank in twelve minutes. His wife Anna survived and sent him a two-word telegram from Wales: "Saved alone."

Spafford boarded the next available ship to join her. When the captain notified him they were passing over the site of the wreck, Spafford went to his cabin and wrote words that no grieving father should have been able to write: "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."

He did not write those words because the pain had passed. He wrote them because his hope was anchored in something the ocean could not swallow.

That is the hope Scripture speaks of — not a feeling that everything is fine, but a confidence that the Almighty holds what we cannot. Hebrews 6:19 calls it "an anchor for the soul, firm and secure."

Some of you are sailing over your own deep waters right now. You do not need to pretend the depth doesn't frighten you. You only need to know that your anchor holds.