Dreams

I woke from a dream this morning, groggy and lost. In it I was secure, loved, I had found myself in the midst of turbulent times. I think dreams reveal a little part of yourself to you that you never knew. That you took for granted. That you thought you knew. I’ve had a dream like this before, two years ago, perhaps. I woke up just as groggy, just as lost, and just as confused.

You’ve entered my dreams before, not once, and not twice. The first was in the most whimsical of ways, the second, more somber. This time, it was like a reunion of sorts, a reconnection. It explains the loss I felt when I woke, and the desperation with which I tried to return to slumber.

In this dream, you came home and as you circled me in your embrace, I felt whole. When you kissed my forehead I felt loved. And when you smiled.. I felt as if I was coming home.

I believe that dreams come when you are exerting the least control over yourself. I also believe that for individuals like myself, or more accurately, Believers like myself, who have strayed or seem to be about to stray from His path, dreams like these are awakenings. They come to us unbidden, an “intrusion from beyond” as Brueggemann calls it. It’s His way of speaking to us in our sleep. It’s especially important if we fail to hear him or listen to him when we are awake. Perhaps I have not listened more carefully in wakefulness and thus, have to listen with more care when I am in sleep.