Setting: Israel, during the time of Elisha.
Disclaimer: Not my story. *smile* See II Kings 4:8-37 for the original telling, this is simply my version of it.
Harvest. My favorite time of year. She turns from the window as the servant bursts through the door, eyes narrowing with concern when she saw the servant carried her child, her only son. "A headache," the servant gasps out, regaining his breath. Quickly gathering her son from the servant's arms, she thanks him, and sends him back to the fields to re-join the reapers before the storm clouds rise.
She rocked back and forth in an effort to calm her son’s crying. He was starting to slow down finally, but he was warm. So warm. He felt as though he was dropping into sleep. This was good; he would probably sleep it off. She laid him on the straw pallet in the corner and wet a rag to lay on his forehead in an attempt to cool him down. Returning to her son, she thought his breathing was shallow but attributed it to him sleeping. But it kept getting slower and finally stopped. Elisha! He can pray to God and bring him back to us. I must go to him now.
She ran to her husband through the stubble in the wheat fields, skirts and hair flapping in the wind. "Jacob! My husband! I need a young man and one of the donkeys to find the man of God and return."
"Why do you need to see him today? It is neither New Moon nor the Sabbath."
"All will be well. Thank you, Jacob!"
"Do not slow on my account." The servant nodded and urged the donkey to move as quickly as possible. Although appearing relatively calm on the outside, her insides were pounding with shock and grief. Surely Elisha can bring our son back to us. They bounced quickly along towards Mount Carmel where the he was known to stay.
Gehazi, Elisha’s servant, met her before she reached Elisha himself to question if all is well at Elisha’s request. She told him that all is well.
They reach the man of God. She climbs out of the cart, and kneels at his feet, shuddering as the tears finally began to flow down, pounding the dirt and wetting his feet. "Did I ask you to give me a son? Did I not say, 'Do not deceive me'?"
Elisha instantly realizes what has happened and sends Gehazi with his staff. "Do not stop to greet anyone and do not answer any greetings, but go and lay my staff across the face of the child."
The woman refuses to leave Elisha so they follow behind Gehazi who is running to reach the child. They reach the house soon after Gehazi and find Gehazi unable to awaken the child. Elisha closes himself in the room with the dead child and prays to the Lord. He stretched his body over the child to warm the child's body twice, and the child sneezed seven times and awoke the second time. She runs into the room after Gehazi tells her the news, falls to the floor and thanks Elisha while praising God, then gathers her son from the bed and leaves, crying tears of joy and thankfulness.
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All is Well-to her husband when her son had just died.
All is Well-to Gehazi when he asks in Elisha’s name
Not until she reaches Elisha does she ask “Why? Why did you ask God to give me a son to take him away?”
What faith. She knew that God could bring her son back through His servant, Elisha.
Yet I worry about little things. The test I have on Tuesday (if you think of me, please pray), projects due with too little time. Worry doesn’t accomplish anything anyways though, other than taking up precious time and preventing us from seeing the gifts that God has placed in our lives.
What can we do to stop worrying and start praising God all the time, not just when we feel like it? What do you do?
A video about Horatio Stafford, the man who wrote the hymn, It is Well, and his story. You can turn off the music player on the right side by clicking the pause button.
