It is Well

 "It is Well" was written by Horatio Spafford after losing the last of his children in a shipwreck at sea.  His son died of Scarlet Fever in 1870; his business investments were burned up in the 1871 Chicago Fire, and he decided to travel to Europe to recover from the pressure in 1873.  Horatio's wife and 4 daughters traveled ahead of him while he stayed behind to wrap up problems with the business as fallout from what was lost in the Chicago Fire. While crossing the Atlantic, the ship sank after a collision with another ship: the Loch Earn, and all four of Spafford's daughters died (his wife couldn't decide between them: which child should she save at the expense of the others?  She'd decided to perish all together rather than choose between them, but miraculously, she survived). She sent Horatio the telegram now read around the world: "Saved alone …". Spafford rushed to meet up with his grieving wife, and when his ship passed the spot where his daughters had drowned, he wrote the following song:
It Is Well With My Soul:

"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 is well, (it is well), with my soul, (with my soul). It is well; it is well with my soul.

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.

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! For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live: If Jordan above me shall roll, No pang shall be mine;  for in death as in life,Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.

But Lord, 'tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait. The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord! Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul.

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight: The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend, A song in the night, oh my soul!"

Life is not always easy.  Life is not always fair. But God is always just, and He is always good, and His Hand holding ours, sometimes, is all we need to know.  May we lean into His strength.  May we be encouraged by His beauty.  May we drink in the joy of each day and cry our tears upon His chest, and never forget Him, but say in both, siimply because He is near, "It is well.  It is well with my soul."