Answers to prayer can come in dreams, and sometimes the dreams can prove true.
I’ve been writing about a rough patch in our family, my brother-in-law Mike surviving a tragic plane crash on a business trip that left friends and colleagues dead and left him between life and death. I can’t tell you how grateful we have been for all your prayers as we have sought comfort and understanding faced with such painful losses.
And then a glimpse of hope.
Sunday morning my sister Diane woke up early and then fell back to sleep in that uneasy state between wakefulness and dreaming. She imagined herself at the burn unit where her husband has been unconscious for more than 10 days. She saw herself stepping into his hospital room and seeing him open his eyes for the first time.
She woke up. It was just a dream. But her three daughters had similar dreams. Then at breakfast they got a call from a nurse at the burn unit. “Mike’s more alert than he’s ever been,” the nurse said with excitement in her voice.
Diane and the girls skipped church, or at least made the hospital their early morning service. Diane popped her head into the door and Mike opened his eyes for the first time.
I hope I’m not greedy in saying, “Keep up the prayers.” Mike’s a complete stranger to most of you. And yet, I know how I’ve been helped by praying for strangers. My compassion grows, my faith becomes stronger, whether I’m praying for Japanese victims of a tragic earthquake or soldiers in Iraq or someone who’s lost a job.
Here’s a prayer of gratitude for a brother-in-law opening his eyes for the first time in a burn unit. Thanks for being part of that.
