The faith of a child, II

Like all children, our Theresa regularly reports her dreams upon waking. Some are frightening and some are fantastic. One recent dream had her losing me in the public library and being unable to find me. Another dream she even reported to have a title, "The Lost Red-Nosed Reindeer."

On sunday morning Theresa woke up and recounted a dream that moved me deeply. We had been experiencing a late winter (or early spring) storm since the previous day. Quite a bit of snow piled up, and we even had thunder on one or two occasions. Perhaps Theresa had gone to bed the previous evening with this on her mind. In any event she dreamt that God was talking to her. He told her that if she would sing it would calm the storm. So she opened her lips and began singing, "Alleluia." And immediately the storm was indeed calm. To say that I was touched by this would be to understate my feelings. It was one of those irreplaceable moments that rather reminded me of a similar faith-affirming incident in my own young life.

I hope she remembers this dream as she grows older, along with the remarkable circumstances surrounding her own birth.