I Dreamed a Dream...

Dreams

For five days a dangerous fugitive was hiding out in my hometown after wounding a police officer who was transporting him to a different state to serve a life sentence in prison.  Although I didn’t consciously worry about being hurt by him, I did change some daytime habits of keeping doors open for letting in the light and enjoying the view of trees and sky.  Night time habits were followed to lock doors but now double checked.  Relaxing hot tub use was cut because the mental relaxation was not happening when you have a simultaneous possibility of being ambushed in your own backyard. Dark thirty dreams revealed a subconscious worry when my mind created a scene that made me cry out from my restless sleep – the “bad guy” was using a drill to bore through our locked door and then his arm was reaching through the door…Darrell woke me up from my screams so I don’t know what would have happened next.  Thankfully, the Grapevine police and U.S. Marshals working the case did bring it to an end so our nervous community has resumed its comfortable life.

 

 

The great Biblical character, Daniel, was known for interpreting the dreams of the kings who held his people in captivity in Babylon.  Relearning his story and reapplying the lessons has been one of my regular weekly activities through a Thursday morning women’s Bible study group at church – retirement allows participation in these opportunities without feeling too tired or too limited in time with a demanding work schedule.  My heart is happy with this new lifestyle!

 

Looking back over my Daniel notes, these are the highlights/questions of the study so far that I choose to rethink and incorporate where applicable: How do you go about breaking bad news to someone, as Daniel did for the king when interpreting a dream?  What kinds of ideas fill my dreams for the future? To whom do I attribute my prosperity? Life choices = indulgence, indifference & irreverence or faith, hope & love.  How do I react to fear and crisis? How do I react to being falsely accused?  What guides my decision making process?  What Biblical prophecies have already been fulfilled and what is yet to come? What do I do with the visions God gives me today? How do I know what is true?  What is the impact of prayer?
 

Daniel was recognized as a godly man. The angel, Gabriel, spoke to him face to face and called him “highly esteemed”.  Daniel gives us an appropriate model of prayer life – he followed a regular habit, he acknowledged God as the ultimate authority who keeps his covenant, praised Him for being great and awesome, thanked him for loving-kindness and compassion, confessed his sin identifying with the disrespect of so many of his kindred people, made requests for himself and his nation.

So lately my dreams have moved from the nightmares of the convict to reliving past scenes of my role as a mom when the boys were young.  Jonathan and Erica spent time with us on Presidents weekend and their sweet ten month old Keller entertained us with his constant movement, babble, expression, determination and curiosity.  Travis and Chelsea chose that time frame to send us all text links to a YouTube video they created to announce the development of another baby coming to join the Green family.  My subconscious mind has been pleasantly consumed with family, children and babies, most recently Travis as a toddler/preschool child running to me for comfort from some mishap and climbing into the safety of my lap. When I woke from this dream, I wasn’t fearful; just nostalgic for the days when I was able to simply pat his back and solve his problems.  I said a quick prayer for guardian angels to watch over him in my absence and in my role that has changed over time and distance.
 

“I’m so glad to be alive”, Travis reported to Darrell yesterday via cell phone. He works at Sunlight Mountain ski resort during the winter season and runs his own business, Green Landscapes, during the growing season.  In his current job as manager of lift operators, he has a certain snow mobile assigned to him for use in traveling up and down the mountain.  Yesterday, his machine was in for servicing so he was using a bigger, faster, unfamiliar snow mobile to move down the mountain after going over some training with his operators at the top of the trails.  He told of it moving too fast and the breaks locking when he tried to get it under control, flying off the trail and crashing into trees.  He could have been killed, but he walked away with bruises while the snow mobile was completely totaled.  Thank the Lord, oh my soul!

Darrell and I recall that this is the third time we’ve rejoiced at a call from this son, celebrating that his life continues!  Once he was in the back seat of a vehicle that slid off a mountain road during a sudden snow storm.  The second time was a mountain climbing adventure with a friend where they got caught in a thunderstorm at perilous heights. And now this one.

 

One of my personal plans to incorporate lessons from Daniel is to continue my habit of prayer when I wake in the night and to expand on my adoration and praise for God’s goodness.

 

Psalm 91:11-12  For he will give his angels charge concerning you, to guard you in all your ways.  They will bear you up in their hands, Lest you strike your foot against a stone.

Psalm 91:14-16  Because he has loved Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him securely on high, because he has known My name.  He will call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him, and honor him.  With a long life I will satisfy him, And let him behold My salvation.

Isaiah 66:13  As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you.