A bright pinioned warbler but just flitting by
Is lost, while we gaze in the depths of the sky;
A bud just bursting when the cruel frost
Steals all its beauty and its fragrance is lost.
Strains of sweet music floating on the air,
Soon turned to moans and wailings of despair;
A glowing smile while flashing o’er the face,
Suddenly to glistening tears give place.
The grief-smitten mother carried the body of her precious child into the upper chamber and tenderly laid it on the “bed of the man of God, and shut the door upon it.” Doubtless, for the present, she intended to keep the death of the child from the husband and father. Evidently she cherished the secret hope that the prophet, who had promised her a son in the name of Jehovah, and had not deceived her, could help to restore him. At all events she acted promptly. She called her husband to send a young man out of the field to make ready with all haste to go to Mount Carmel, and when ready she said to the servant, “Drive, and go forward; slack not thy riding for me, except I bid thee.”
Elisha, from his outlook on mount Carmel, saw a cloud of dust in the plain of Esdraelon, and he called the attention of Gehazi to the flying figures at the head of it. On swept the riders over the plain. Elisha once more put his hand up to shade his eyes from the glare of the sun, and said, “Behold, it is the Shunammite; run now,” and ask, “Is it well with thee? is it well with thy husband? is it well with the child?” By sending his servant to meet her, Elisha showed how highly he esteemed this woman. However, to the salutation of Gehazi, she returned only the short, indefinite answer, “It is well,” in order, doubtless, not to be detained by further explanations. She would at once hasten to the prophet himself. When she came near him, overcome by grief, which she had repressed until then, she threw herself at his feet, in the manner of Orientals, and sobbed out her great sorrow, at the same time imploring his assistance. Gehazi could not understand it. He thought her conduct in clasping his master’s feet an offence against his dignity, and “came near to thrust her away.” But Elisha said, “Let her alone.” Give the poor grief-stricken woman a chance to compose herself and to tell her trouble.