During our family worship time, I taught my children the story behind the great Horatio Spafford hymn, It Is Well With My Soul.
Then a friend sent a link to this article in the Roanoke Times. The similarity between stories is stunning. A good friend of mine from Greensboro is friends with the Bryant family.
"We can choose to be angry and bitter. Or we can choose to trust God and walk in his peace," Wilburn said.
After the final prayer, a violinist played "Amazing Grace." Thirty-six men dressed in black and gray suits stood up and carried the six coffins one-by-one from the church and loaded them into six hearses."
Where do you go with this amount of grief?
In 1871, as Spafford sailed the Atlantic and processed the loss of his four daughters to a tragic accident at sea, the loss of his young son to disease, the loss of his business and material holdings to fire, he penned the words to the hymn.
Particularly powerful is Spafford's third stanza, my personal favorite ... it is a rare occurrence when I can sing this part of the hymn without crying.
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
It is well with my soul,
it is well, it is well with my soul.
How is your soul? Is it well?
Join with me in pleading for God's grace and comfort to rain down on the Bryant family and their community as they experience this loss.
