Everything Is All Right

"Run to meet her and ask her, ‘Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your child all right?’”

“Everything is all right,” she said.
~ 2 Kings 4:26

This is the story of the Shunammite woman who was old when Elijah told her that she was going to give birth to a son and she did. When he was a child he died. The woman went to where Elijah was, and as the story turns out, Elijah did the same as his mentor Elijah had done, and laid across the boy and the boy came back to life.

I have lost a son, a daughter, and several grandchildren. There's nothing more difficult for a mother than to lose her child. No love is greater,  and no heartbreak is worse  for a woman but the Shunammite woman, who should have been in a panic, who should have been wailing, crying and grieving over her lost child did none of those things.

Instead, she went to the prophet who had told her she would have a son and when she was greeted and asked how everything was, she did not cry and say,  "My son is dead," she said,  "Everything is all right." It reminds me of David whose infant son died. (2 Samuel 12:16-23) He fasted and prayed while the son was sick but when the baby died, he got up and ate and everyone asked, 'why aren't you grieving, this child is dead' and David said,  "he cannot return to me but one day I'll go and be with him."

I'm also reminded of Job, who, after having lost everything that he held dear, said, "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord." (Job 1:21)

It's important for us to remember as followers of Jesus Christ, as believers in God, that no matter what happens, if we are faithful and we truly believe that our steps are directed by the Lord, no matter how disastrous it may seem, no matter what we may lose, no matter how low it may seem that we are going, no matter if we lose everything that we hold dear, we can still be like the Shunammite woman and say, "Everything is all right."

"Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul

It is well (it is well)
With my soul (with my soul)
It is well, it is well with my soul" (Audrey Assad)

Psalm 46:1-3 – God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.