Last week I mentioned that a little gift wrapped in red was left in my desk by an unknown giver. It turns out the gift was a 3CD collection of older hymns. By the end of the day on Thursday, I put it in my bag and didnt think about it again untill this morning, on my way to work.
I placed CD # 3 in my cd player. Immediatelly my car was enveloped in the beauty of worship. Outside some birds had already waken up and were flying like black shiny dots of oil against a faint blue sky. Some seagulls were up too, they seem to gather at the same place every morning. I swear to God they seem to laugh every morning. Out the record: I still don't understand why they live here so far from the ocean.
Anyway, as the songs played I started praising my God for all the wonderful things He has done for me, for all of us. Just this Sunday what a nice day He gave us. He is a Giver of every perfect gift, but to me, He is the perfect gift himslef.
My girl who graduated cosmetology school at Paul Mitchel, decided to do everybody's hair in the family. This Sunday we all sat thankfully around the table for some rice, brown beans, fried breaded chicken, sweet potatoes and salad. Everyone looked so beautiful, ate well and felt so good about themselves. And thinking about that I was in the mood for laughter and praise. My little 1997 Saturn SL travelling East completely soaked in God's awesome presence.
As I quickly approached exit 8 (the place where I always think about Joana) song number 6 started playing with a pretty piano introduction. It caught my ears, so I raised the volume a bit....Oh no...no way I could not believe it. It was the English version of my friend's favorite song, wow.
I never knew the tittle or all the words for this song, just one line I knew, and in the Portuguese version. I wanted to buy it but couldnt. Now I recognized the rythm...Right there in my hands I had the CD cover with the tittle and the author's name: Spafford. And now I know the tittle in both languages: It is well with my soul / Sou feliz com Jesus.
When I got to work I decided to do a little research about this specific hymn, her favorite. I found out that it was written by an attorney in the eighteen hundreds....imagine an attorney! I too graduated law school back home. I was liking this song even more.
The hymn was written after several traumatic events in Spafford's life. The first was the death of his only son in 1871, after that the Chicago Fire which ruined him financially. Then in 1873, he had planned to travel to Europe with his family, but sent the family ahead while he was delayed on business. While crossing the Atlantic, the ship sank after a collision with another ship, and all four of his daughters died. Only his wife Anna (my name) survived. Shortly afterwards when he traveled to meet his grieving wife, he was inspired to write these words as his ship passed near where his daughters died. The Spaffords later had three more children, one of whom (a son) died in infancy. In 1881 they sailed for Palestine and moved to Jerusalem helping to found a group called the American Colony; its mission was to serve the poor. The colony later became the subject of the Nobel prize winning Jerusalem, by Swedish novelist Selma Lagerlöf.
I sat in my desk still surrounded by the amazing mysteries of God.
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