Dreams . . .

"I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety"

(Psalm 4:8).

One of my great friends in the world sent me this verse today, and I am routinely amazed at how perfect and timely God speaks.

I have been having a recurring dream, and it goes something like this:

It is next Wednesday, and we are at the doctor for the next ultrasound. The gel is applied, and the ultrasound begins. All of a sudden, we see two babies on the screen. The ultrasound lady says that there must have been some mistake at the last ultrasound because right there are both babies, alive and well. It is then determined that the lifeless baby we saw last time was the triplet we already knew was not viable. We are shocked. We smile. We laugh. The doctor comes in and apologizes for the mistake, and then I wake up . . .

. . . with a sense of relief and thinking that things are really OK and last week wasn't really the worst week of my life.

It is a heavenly dream . . . until . . .

. . . I realize after a few seconds of relief that this is no way, no how going to happen. I go through in my head what we saw on the screen: a moving, very much alive baby and a still, small corpse; the steady flicker of a hearbeat and then nothing.

I've been having trouble falling asleep lately, and most of the time, I'm fighting the urge to embrace the impending dream as a possibility. And I'm dreading waking up from a truly wonderful dream.

Tonight, I will focus on a gift from the heart of God, sent through a dear friend:

"I will lie down and sleep in peace . . . "

Good night.