You Will Have A Third Son

One by one they came to tell me of a dream that they had. The dreams were all the same. Identical. Three different ladies in the church told me they had a dream that Carol and I would have a sixth child, and it would be a boy, our third son. None of them knew that others had the same dream. But each felt it important enough to come and tell us. And whenever dreams, or spiritual “signs”, come in a group of three, I knew to pay attention, because God was in it.

One small problem, though. I wasn’t excited to hear such news. Quite the opposite. I was disheartened. We already had five children and we were more than a bit overwhelmed. Like any other American family, three kids was plenty, thank you. Perhaps four. Our fifth was a surprise. But we never dreamt we would have a “quiver full”, six kids.

In fact, I was so distraught over the prospect of another child I did the unthinkable. I got down on my knees to talk with God, I wrestled with him to try to understand why He would do such a thing to us. This was after Carol had become pregnant with number six. So I asked Him, the giver of dreams, to take that child away, because we just simply could not handle that much more stress.

I don’t know what God was thinking to give in to such a foolish request, but He did. Carol miscarried. We lost that baby. I felt so ashamed. Disheartened, ten fold more than before.

Then confusion set in. I always reconciled God’s providence with man’s free will by saying that God calls us to be partners, co-creators of sorts. But I never bargained for my half of the partnership carrying more weight than His half. He should not have listened to me. He should have saved me from that ugly deed and the ensuing guilt and shame.

But His grace is far more powerful than His sparing me from my selfish, foolish, request. In a season of prayer for forgiveness and repentance he revealed that the child that was lost was Susanna. Not the son. Some day perhaps we shall see that unborn child, in eternity. What a calling of God that her heart would beat for just a short time to be to me a lesson of accepting God’s will, and also of the power of God’s grace.

Some time later our third son was born, just as God foretold in three dreams. Samuel, if ever there was a son of promise, a son prophesied by dreams, then it is you. Your mother wanted to name you Daniel. But when we held you in our hands that first day I said to her, “No, his name will be Samuel” (I Sam 1:20). By His amazing love God took me through an emotional, spiritual maze and changed my heart. I prayed a new prayer, and He answered it. He fulfilled the dreams and gave us the son. God, your grace is amazing, and the way you sometimes impart it is beyond imagination.

“In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.” (Proverbs 16:9)

“God does speak – now one way, now another… in a dream, in a vision of the night…” (Job 33)