Peace

          I find it interesting to learn the backgrounds of various hymns.  This interest is one of the things that has kept me writing my hymn blog for many years.
           In 1874, Horatio Palmer asked Mary Ann Baker to compose songs to accompany his Sunday School lessons.  One dealt with the story of Jesus sleeping in the storm in the boat on Galilee.

           Mary had recently gone through her own storms. Her only brother had died a thousand miles from home while seeking a warmer climate for his tuberculosis.  For two weeks the telegraph wires carried messages back and forth between the dying brother and his loving sister.  Then came the news of his death.
            With this grief, Mary Ann studied Mark 4 and wrote, "Master, the tempest is raging! The billows are tossing high! The sky is o'ershadowed with blackness, no shelter or help is nigh, carest Thou not that we perish? How canst Thou lie asleep, when each moment so madly is threat'ning a grave in the angry deep."
          The chorus answers, "The winds and the waves shall obey Thy will, Peace be still, Peace be still!" And they did, and they still will!

          As we enter a new year we too will encounter new storms in our lives.  But Jesus isn't unaware or unconcerned.  He whispers to us, "Peace be still."  We can trust Him!