All is Well

She welcomed the prophet of God,
She opened her home to him,
She gave him food and a bed for the night,
She built him a guest room on top of the house
For rest and refreshment whenever he passed,
All is well.

But she was sad, she had no children,
Her life felt incomplete
The man of God, he prophesied,
And God himself was true to his word:
Next year she gave birth to a baby son.
All is well.

The boy grew up in a happy home,
The prophet visited him every year,
She was thankful, with husband and son,
Delighted to be living out her
Purpose and destiny as wife and mother,
All is well.

But one day when the boy was out,
Helping his father in the field,
‘My head, my head’, he cried,
And suddenly to the ground he fell.
His father carried him home again:
Is all well?

She held him close, tight in her arms,
She rocked him, she sang, she prayed,
But in just a few hours the boy was dead!
She laid him on the prophet’s bed,
Full of anguish, yet she said,
‘All is well.’

Quickly she saddled the donkey,
Hurriedly she set out to find
The prophet, wherever he was.
She felt grief, despair, pain and dismay,
Yet to her husband she sent to say,
‘All is well.’

When she found the man of God,
She fell at his feet in her grief.
She cried and shouted her anger,
She accused him, she blamed him,
Yet even so, she still said,
‘All is well.’

The prophet understood at once,
He sent his servant on ahead
With his sacred staff to heal the boy
But no, it didn’t work
Still the boy lay there, dead.
Is all well?

The man of God lay on the boy,
Hand to hand, face to face,
And he felt warmth, but still no life.
Again he laid, again he prayed,
And with seven sneezes he was alive!
All is well!

She rejoiced to see him live again,
She thanked the prophet, she thanked God,
Once more a happy family,
Father, mother, son, for even
In her grief and pain, she knew that
All is well.

And what of me? Do I react
To circumstance, or can I trust
In God who loved the world so much?
He gave his son, that everyone
Who believes in him may know that
All is well.

Based on 2 Kings 4:8-37
The phrase ‘all is well’ is translated from the single word ‘shalom’ in the Hebrew Bible.