Be Thou my vision

I have trouble going to sleep at night, because I cannot stop thinking about Lydia and her health problems. About a week and a half before she began showing signs of the brain tumor's return, I had this "conversation" in my half-awake, half-dreaming state. Questions arose in mind as I lay there trying to quieten my thoughts. I believe it was God speaking to me.

What if there was a doctor who could heal Lydia of this brain tumor and give her back her sight, would you send her to this doctor?
Oh what a wonderful thought! Of course we would take her to him immediately.

But what if this doctor was far away in another country, a beautiful country, a peaceful county, but far away? Would you still want her to go to him?
Yes, we would! We would sell everything we have to take her there: our house, our cars, everything we have!

Do not worry: the price has already been paid, but she would have to come alone. You would be able to go to her in time and hold her in your arms again, but for now she would have to go alone. Would you still be willing to let her go to this faraway place?
Well, yes, but she would be afraid if we couldn't go. She's blind. We have been with her through all of this. I cannot bear the thought of letting her go alone, the thought of being here without her!

What if you knew that there were many, many loved ones already there waiting to greet her with open arms, joyful to see her? What if you knew there was already a beautiful place prepared in this country just for her? What if you knew that this Great Physician who would heal her eyes and take away the cancer in her brain would always be near her and would never leave her?
Yes, we would let her go...of course, we would let her go.

I understood then that this Great Physician was God and this beautiful country was Heaven, and that I had no need to worry about Lydia. She was going to be fine. These were things I knew in my head, of course. But the vision of heaven and the presence of our Lord and our loved ones there was so tangible and real to me in those moments. The promise of Lydia's healing was so beautiful--she will SEE Jesus and Grandma Wykle, Papaw and Mamaw Sappington, Sabrina Mae, and so many others. She will live in this beautiful county with them forever in perfect peace and love, worshiping the Lord always. I will hold her in my arms again. Filled with amazement and thankfulness by these things, I fell into a sound sleep, something I had not done for many months.

"She is not sent away, but only sent before...ye see her not, yet she doth shine in another country." Samuel Rutherford.