It Is Well

The Story

In the town of Shunem lived a wealthy woman who noticed Elisha passing through. She began inviting him for meals, and then she and her husband built a small room on their roof, with a bed, a table, a stool, and a lamp, so he’d always have a place to stay.

Elisha wanted to repay her kindness. His servant Gehazi pointed out that she had no son, and her husband was old. So Elisha told her that by this time next year, she would hold a son in her arms. She could hardly bear to hope. “Do not lie unto thine handmaid,” she said. But a year later, she had a baby boy.

Years passed. One day during the harvest, the boy cried out to his father in the field, “My head, my head!” He was carried home to his mother, and at noon, he died in her lap.

She carried him up to Elisha’s room, laid him on the bed, and shut the door. Then she rode straight to Elisha at Mount Carmel. When Gehazi ran to ask if everything was all right, she answered, “It is well.” But when she reached Elisha, she fell at his feet and wouldn’t let go. Elisha sent Gehazi ahead with his staff to lay on the boy’s face, but she refused to go home without Elisha himself.

Elisha went back with her. He prayed, then stretched himself over the boy. The child’s body grew warm. He sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.

Reflection