The Special Gift....

I rarely dream and when I do they usually disappear from my mind like a vapour upon wakening.

A few years ago I did have a dream that stayed with me...it was quite vivid and actually answered a question that I had wanted the answer of for more than twenty years. To this day, I really feel that it was the Lord who gave the dream...it was a special gift. I wasn't surprised at it taking over twenty years...after all God's time is not our time...his time is but a blink of an eye. I will not tell you about that dream right now but I will tell you about one that happened just this past Sunday morning.

At the start of this dream my eldest daughter Leslie and I were at a hospital...it was a very old building...one that I had never been to before. Leslie had just given birth to a baby but didn't look like she had...she was very slim and wearing shorts and a summer top. The two of us were sitting in a very long narrow room...it was actually a closed in porch of this old hospital....all along the exterior wall of this outer porch were the little baby isolettes...just like you see in a nursery on their little stands. A nurse was standing by one of the isolettes and told us to come over to hold the baby....the baby was extremely tiny and in a clear cylinder about 8" long and about a couple of inches in diameter. (I know that it sounds just too weird but please bear with me) While I was holding the cylinder Leslie saw someone out on the sidewalk that she knew and said that she had to go and talk to them...so she left. There I sat with this baby...after awhile I went to lay it back down in its' little bed, but the nurse said, 'Oh no, they like to be held - you should hold it...so I did.

The next scene, was in a huge room that had chairs all around the perimeter of it - my mom was with me...it was some community meeting about 'water'...what about it I really don't know but as we were walking to our seats my mom said that she was going to get a coffee. I was still holding the baby so I said that I'd go and get chairs for us...which I did. While sitting there, this young man came along and sat down...I was dismayed because I'm not one of those assertive people that feel comfortable in asking people to move ...but after a moment, another young man came along and said to the first guy...'hey, there's a couple of seats together over there..let's go there'...so they did.
Meanwhile, the baby started to move in the cylinder-it moved out of the top of it and started to get bigger...I said, ' Oh, you decided to wake up, did you?'

The next scene, the baby was a normal size and was on my lap with a receiving blanket loosely wrapped around him...yes, it was a little boy -- as I spoke and smiled at him, he smiled back.
Then I happened to look up and there, coming towards me was my sister, Adele, with a big grin on her face. She was pushing a wheelchair...not an ordinary wheelchair but one where the person could lounge , sitting sideways in it. In the wheelchair was my dad, dressed in hospital clothes with hospital sheets over him. He was smiling and at his right shoulder was my mom. The look on my mom's face was indescribable....she was filled with such joy that she just beamed...her whole face was wreathed in a smile.
I said, rather incredulously, 'What are you doing here? How can you be here - you're dead!' Adele said, 'He knew that you wanted to see him, so he came'.
'Give the baby to me' dad said, so I did and then I layed my face sideways on the upper part of my dad's arm, facing the baby, and wept. The tears just silently rolled down my cheeks.

And then I awoke.

I nudged my hubby and said.'Don, it's time to get up'...he said, 'no, I've set the alarm'...so I just layed there, quiet...thinking about my dream..trying to figure it out......and I think I have.

You see the last time that I had such a vivid, impactful dream was like I said, a few years ago...and it was an answer to a question that was always at the back of my mind for many years....I got my answer and it came in the form of a dream and I'm convinced that God gave me that special gift, that answer....and now he had done it again.

About 3-1/2 years ago Leslie had been pregnant but halfway thru the pregnancy, at about 18 weeks it was determined that the baby had died...it was a nightmare especially since the same thing had happened to me about 28 years earlier. Leslie was induced, went through labour and delivered a tiny, tiny baby boy...Leslie didn't want to look at the baby but I went with the midwife and we went into the next room and did look at him...even though he was very tiny, both the midwife and I thought he was a boy. His name was Hayden.

My sister Adele, was the last person to see my dad alive, so that's why she should be the one to bring him to me. Dad was still in the hospital the last time I saw him alive, dressed in a hospital gown with sheets over him.

My mom has been very lonely without my dad and her greatest joy would be to be reunited with him.

Since my dad died, my greatest heartache was that I had wanted to see him one more time while he was still alive...I didn't and it bothered me so much....the Lord knew that this was my great desire and he gave me this beautiful gift, this gift of seeing my dad just one more time.

My dad always loved to hold his new grandbabies...and he never got to hold Hayden...well, now he did.

So, I hope you don't think that I'm totally weird...because I will admit to you that this dream made me feel so good....much better than I have in months.....I saw my dad....one more time.