LOVE SIGNS FROM HEAVEN    
                                                          T. Wieland Allen
   It is so thrilling to know God, the Comforter.  He is always comforting people, but some people don't have the spiritual eyes to recognize His comforting gifts from heaven for them.  I have experienced the marvels of the Comforter many, many times in magnificent ways.  In one instance I had been praying for My grandson Stephen, that God would get him a new job with more stable supervisors and congenial workers.  He definitely needed new surroundings and new associations that would benefit him.
   Many months prior to Stephen's needing a new job, I had a wonderful dream in which I observed a young man approaching a low diving board to do a dive.  He systematically did a perfect approach, jumped on the end of the spring board, catapulted high in the air and did three perfect flips before entering the water, all in Olympic style.  In the dream I was impressed, and when the young man walked in front of me I got a closer look and immediately, in the dream, said, "Stephen, was that you?"  Stephen shook his head up and down affirmatively and started walking toward the dressing room.  In the dream I said to him, "I am so proud of you and all of the family is so proud of you," to which his smile broadened even more.  Little did I know when I wrote the dream in my dream book that events would happen in Stephen's life that required a lot of prayer and negotiations on his part.
   Several months later a situation happened in his life that required hours of intercessory prayer on my part, the part of his parents and also his part.  It became apparent that Stephen needed a new working environment in order to maintain a good lifestyle.  Our prayers continued on and on for him.
   I took a trip during the interim between praying and the answer to the prayers.  On the return trip I was in a busy airport waiting to catch my plane for the return trip home.  As I was approaching the gate which led to My plane, I heard music and assumed it was from the airport's intercom.  When I got to my gate I saw a young Filipino man playing a ukulele and singing. That was a strange sight.  As I passed the young man to get in line to board the plane he switched songs and began to sing one of my favorites, Over the Rainbow.  In my youth I had sung it many times at all sorts of venues, weddings, showers, social events, churches, club meetings, etc.  As I entered the tunnel leading to the airplane I heard the young man sing the phrase, "And the dreams that I dare to dream really do come true." 
    My thought was JUST A MINUTE, I had a dream about my Filipino/American grandson and here is a Filipino young man singing my signature song that says that dreams really do come true.  This incident had to be set up by God, the Comforter, to give me faith that the dream about Stephen would become a reality in the future.
     After I located a good seat on the airplane, I sat down and pulled out a paper and pen and began to write down the words to the song.  I was flabbergasted how much it pertained to the situation relating to Stephen.  As I wrote the lyrics to the song, the phrase "a land that I heard of once in a lullaby" stood out because I was researching and teaching about the kingdom of heaven coming into our lives on earth, which I was experiencing.  Another comforting phrase was, "a place where troubles melt like lemon drops a way above the chimney tops," exploded in my mind. Yes, God can make troubles melt like lemon drops.  That was what we were praying for Stephen.
    I wrote that wonderful experience in my God journal, as I call it, for future reference in case I needed a Red Bull shot of faith in the future.  God had impressed me to write down supernatural events in order to give credence to God's wonderful interventions in my life. I certainly documented that experience.
    A few months and many, many intercessory prayers later, Stephen got a new job.  We were so thrilled and were still praying that it would be the right job for him with the perfect supervisor and God-chosen associates with which he would spend many hours a day.
     Stephen was to start with orientation early on a Sunday.  On the day before, a Saturday, I had awakened at 4:00 am and prayed intercessory prayers for him and my family.  At 5:30 I did my breathing exercises and then got dressed for the day.  I opened the front wooden door in order to observe whether the morning papers had arrived.  When I peered out of the glass storm door I saw an unusual sight.  A young cardinal was hopping around in the grass adjacent to the sidewalk.  I have seen many, many cardinals flying around or perched in trees or power lines way up high but I never had seen one hopping around in grass picking up things in his beak.  That junior cardinal, as I call him because he was still thin, had dual colored feathers on his body and topknot but there were some red feathers on his head. 
     For some reason the junior cardinal reminded me of Stephen who is very tall, thin, and his beautiful, thick, straight black hair has a little cowlick at the top back of his head that sticks up a bit, just like the junior cardinal.  I automatically said, "Well, good morning, Stephen."  The cardinal must have been on his maiden voyage out of the nest.  That little bird continued to hop around in the grass until I quietly tried to exit the glass door.  Then he hopped right into the wisteria tree next to the sidewalk.  The words came to me that Jesus said He would send the Comforter.  That little junior cardinal comforted me and boosted my faith that God had everything under control that I had entrusted to Him. 
     The next morning, the day that Stephen was to start the new job, my day progressed just like every other day, waking early to pray, doing breathing exercises, getting dressed for the day and then opening the wooden door to see if the morning papers were there.  As I peered out of the glass door my thought was NO WAY.  Lo and behold, the same junior cardinal was there but he was on the sidewalk closer to the door so I got a better look at him.   His head was almost all red and his topknot had ruffled gray/brown feathers, many of them beginning to turn red.  His body had the same grayish/brown feathers as his topknot.  He hopped around on the sidewalk as if parading for me, and my gaze strayed long enough to see a bunny rabbit nestled in the grass close to the bird.  It was a restful sight and I took it as an effort to encourage me to rest in faith. 
     The junior cardinal hopped off of the sidewalk and right over to the same wisteria tree where he disappeared from my view.  Of course he was comfortable in the tree because it was my husband Steve's tree that I had bought and planted for him the year before he died.  Of course that junior bird who reminded me of my grandson Stephen would nest in the tree that was a gift for another Stephen, his grandfather. My faith was at mountaintop heights by this time.
     That was not all of the miraculous events of the day. I grabbed the newspapers, commenced to fix my breakfast, decided to sit in my recliner and eat the meal so I could put my feet up.  Before I read the newspaper, I reached over to grab a notebook sitting there, looked hurriedly at the front of the notebook and there on the opened page was the story about the song that the young Filipino man was playing and singing, the one that was confirmation that God was working mightily in Stephen's life.  I read through the words to the song Over the Rainbow and realized that bluebirds were mentioned in the song, and here I had witnessed comforting sights from God using a bird, even though it was a red cardinal. Yes, there had been more miracles apparent even then.
     Jesus told us to keep our eyes open because we entertain angels of which we are unaware unless we have spiritual eyes to see them.  God had sent that junior cardinal that reminded me of Stephen as a confirmation that He is working feverishly in Stephen's behalf.  He confirmed it to me in signs from heaven.
      God impressed me that the new job is Stephen's second flip off of the diving board, the first flip being the way he had handled himself in a mistake he had made.  He had taken complete blame, refusing to place the blame elsewhere.  His responsibility impressed the people involved which resulted in many compliments to him and about him.  Per my dream, there is one more perfect flip ahead for Stephen before he lands in the waters of life in  perfect form, coming out of all of this like an Olympic athlete, per my dream.  
       God doesn't have to confirm His miraculous works that he does in our behalf.  He does it because of His unconditional love for us.  We all need to pray for spiritual eyes to always recognize the miracles that He makes visible in our    behalf.  The Comforter is definitely worthy of thanks and praise for what he has done for my family.  Praises will continually be in my mouth for Him.
      Now, on to the next miracle. 
      Life is so exciting!