FIRMLY PLANTED â—½ ENCOURAGEMENT
Dreams are a fascinating phenomenon. Day dreams can transport me to another place where I’m so lost in thought I lose track of time and place. Then there are the “dreams” of what could be—the seemingly impossible dreams of the heart—like my prayer garden that started from nothing and is now my sanctuary. But the most fascinating and mysterious to me are the dreams we have while sleeping.
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While not completely understood, there is a lot of scientific information about dreaming. We know certain facts about how the brain works. Among other things, dreams help us process emotions and clear the mind by transferring memories from short-term to long-term storage. This helps us wake up with a fresh and cleared mind. God, in his infinite mind-blowing wisdom, made provision for our minds to be rejuvenated and refreshed.
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But what intrigues me most about dreams is the personal messages they can hold. I believe that dreams are one way God speaks to us. In the Bible we find many instances of dream interpretation—some very dramatic! Most of my dreams are forgotten as soon as I wake, or too obscure to put into words, but a few weeks ago I had one that I remembered well enough to put on paper, as I do from time to time.
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The gist of the dream was this: I was staying in a nice hotel (really nice!) someone had let me stay in for free. Suddenly, two children appeared: a girl about four and a boy around one. They had no parent or adult with them. Concerned, I picked up the
little boy and when I turned around to gather the girl, she had disappeared, just walked out the back door of where we were. I spent the rest of the dream looking for the little girl, carrying the toddler and asking everyone I saw if they knew who they were or where the parents were. No one did, and I never saw the little girl again. At the end, I looked down at the little boy and he wasn’t a little boy—it was an inanimate object, like a doll or something.
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Dreams are strange. God is strange; his language is often symbolic and ambiguous. This dream felt meaningful, but there is no Daniel to interpret. I’m compelled to search within, and ask my maker and transformer what he’s trying to tell me. After some pondering, I think it has to do with my priorities and how I spend my time, which I’ve written about before and is something I constantly evaluate. The hotel room is this wonderful life he’s given me. Right now I’m enjoying the goodness of God, including peace, health, and security. The two children represent distractions, albeit deserving and worthy ones. The message is in the time invested looking for the parents to no avail. At the end, the boy wasn’t even real!
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Right or wrong (and if wrong, I’m sure God will persist until I get it right!), this is my interpretation. The lesson, or reminder, is that I must not waste time, but pursue what brings Life. That has caused me to look at what I am doing, what distractions are taking me away from what God has given me to do. I have an idea of what things are “lifeless” in my life, and I’m starting on a new spiritual path that can help me stay focused and accountable. Such is life in the Kingdom now…walking together with God, being changed by Christ within.
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“In a realm of intangibles, in a realm beyond logic, are the answers.”
Gerald Kenedy from The Lion and the Lamb