Paulette and I like to travel, but the pandemic has put a kybosh on that.  We finally decided to have a safe getaway, and have rented a condo for a week at Ormond Beach.  We’re staying safe by keeping our distance from others and cooking our own food.  It’s been a good week, and it’s been nice walking on the beach, which has few people.  The nicest part, however, is sitting on the balcony, with a cold drink, watching the ocean, and listening to the surf.  It’s amazing how loud the surf is; when I’ve woken in the middle of the night, I can hear its soothing sound through the closed bedroom window.  One night it was a little stormy, and while it didn’t sound quite so soothing, it still lulled me back to sleep.

            Several times during the week I thought of the phrase “Sea billows roll,” which is part of a line from one of my favorite hymns, “It Is Well with my Soul.”  Here is the entire first verse.

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.

            It was written in the midst of sorrow by Horatio Spafford.  He had lost much of his wealth in the Chicago fire of 1871, and shortly thereafter lost his four-year-old son to illness.  He decided to take his family to Europe for an escape, and he sent his wife and four daughters ahead aboard the SS Ville du Havre, while he attended to some last-minute business matters.  Unfortunately, the ship collided with another ship and sank.  Spafford’s wife survived, but his four daughters perished.  He then left for Europe to join his wife in mourning.  He asked the captain of the ship he was on to tell him when they were near where his daughters had died.  It was as the ship passed this tragic spot that he started writing his moving hymn, which is a monument to the power of faith.

             This has been a chaotic and challenging year.  All of us have suffered major inconveniences, and some of us have suffered major sorrows.  Even church attendance has become problematical for many of us.  Spafford’s sorrows must have been even more intense.  The words of his hymn are a comfort to us, but the fact that he could compose them when he did, make them doubly uplifting.

            Please read Isaiah 48:18 and remember:  God loves YOU unconditionally.

Jim