This week I feature an excerpt from my book, On A Clear Blue Day.

The dream came to me, because I asked for it.  The evening before the dream I felt miserable.  My husband and I were distant--he withdrew into his shell and constantly watched television, the screen like another woman.  I was sick of it.  And so much of who I am, he didn't get--didn't get that I am a person who believes in answered prayers and divine interventions.  So I prayed, "God please.  I don't know what to do.  Give me a dream."  And He did.

That night I found myself floating on my back in warm waters--a blue sea flecked with white caps.  When I rose up out of the water I was standing on the edge of a kingdom.  A majestic castle stood there just off the shoreline, its turrets splendidly reaching up toward the cerulean, cloudless sky.  It was pleasantly warm.

I immediately had the desire to enter the castle.  but as is true in dreams, they are not always linear.  I don't remember entering through the castle doors, but instead found myself climbing stone steps up a narrow passage into one of the high towers.

After a while I paused on the step and noticed an alcove to my left. A small marble table was set up with benches on either side. On one bench sat my father, wearing a dark suit and red tie. He was young with luminous skin, his eyes bright--the wavy, thick hair of his youth. I was ecstatic to see him as he died in 2000 at age eighty-six.

My father invited me to sit down on the opposite bench.  We were in close quarters.  I could feel the heat and bony protrusions of his kneecaps pressed up against mine.  He was kind, yet simultaneously let me know his time was limited.  It was like he had many tasks to complete and the Lord had summoned him to speak to me.  I sensed the brevity of our interaction and got right to the point.  "Dad, what should I pray for Giovanni?"  He replied, "Pray that his heart would be pierced by the love of the Master."  I looked ip to see a window cut out of the stone wall.  Light filled up the window--the sky of heaven all around the castle.

I asked my dad, "That's all--pray for a pierced heart?"   "Yes," he said. "That is my directive."

I awakened.  It was about three in the morning.  I sat down at the computer and Googled "pierced heart."  I found a website in Salt Lake City, Utah called "Piercing Hearts Ministries."  The ministry invites people to send prayer requests.  I shared my dream and what led me to their website.  A few days later I got an email from the pastor of the ministry.  He said he and his staff were moved by my story and were praying for my husband.  The pastor wrote, "Sometimes we forget that the Master loves them more than we do."

Then about two weeks later after I had the dream, my older sister visited me unexpectedly.  We live very far apart, so don't see each other much.  She brought me a gift.  When I opened the package, a colorful ceramic heart with an arrow pierced through it was in the box.  How could she have known?  When I told her about the dream, she said she felt God prompted her to buy the gift for me.

The heart hangs on my wall, a symbol of the Master's love and His directive for me to pray that my husband's heart would be pierced by His love.  And then He summoned people to pray.  Can I doubt?  I shouldn't.  Sometimes I do, though.  Then I remember I dreamed of sky through a window.