I used to think that dreams were only hatched by those with very creative minds who did not sleep soundly. Tossing and turning, all night long, they wrestled lions, tigers, bears, oh my! (Dorothy on The Wizard of Oz) Today, I know it’s my inside voice articulating my subconscious thoughts from “sub rosa” (under the rose/surface). Suddenly, Surface! Surface! Surface! (Submarine Commander voice) The parenthetical emphasis is my inside voice telling you the reference and letting my conscious mind know where the word image comes from.
Through the past dozen years or so, I’ve been waking in the middle of the night with a vivid dream trouncing my sleep. For brief seconds, my awake mind is still grasped by the tentacle of the dream. In between two worlds, it’s hard to determine what’s real.
It has been said dreaming is simply the mind reorganizing its’ storage capacity.
I don’t know. (Grammarly did not like “dunno”!) What I’ve been dreaming has nothing to do with reality. Nor facts that I decern from real-time living. Nor data I’ve needed to reorganize. It’s a jumbled mess—smidgens of reality alongside tons of fantastical.
With dreams like this, who wants to go back to sleep!
There was a time I dreamed of a backyard fence.
Deep, welcoming grass on the other side.
Jumping over, and rolling into, suddenly the snake hidden was real.
Cottonmouth, Rattler, or perhaps a Coral, or two…
The grass was so thick you could not get up.
Only, roll, roll, roll your way to freedom.
That snake never got me. Though it felt close at times. That dream was with me for years. Today? It’s been a while.
I Wonder If Jesus Dreamed
Throughout the bible, we learn of those of dreamed dreams and had visions. There’s a difference. A vision comes with a conscious mind, fully aware of surroundings while seeing future possibilities. Dreams, well, I’m not sure what they are!
Prophecy of the Old Testament, and found in fulfillment in the New Testament, tells us:
And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God,
I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh:
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams:
(Acts 2:17 KJV) / (Joel 2:23 KJV)
No line was drawing identifying who was young, and when did you become old! The way my “dreams” are acting up, I must be in the latter category. Then, I paused and asked myself this question, unbidden it came, and somehow it stayed.
“I wonder if Jesus dreamed?”
God, robed in flesh, tempted and tried just as you and I. Could it be his dreams were no different than mine? Or, perhaps not. We find that Jesus often spent the night hours in prayer. Perhaps midnight prayers are the slayer of dreams.
Wisdom from the Ages
Do any type of Google search about dreams, and you’ll find pithy sayings alongside warnings of all kinds. Dream Big, Accomplish Your Dreams, Live Your Dreams, Don’t Stop, and on it goes.
Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than the imagination when awake?
~Leonardo da Vinci
Perhaps we want our dreams to come true. Yet, some dreams are nightmares. Others are fantasy. Somewhere between the two are the possibilities. I’m not sure why the first two exist. Perhaps it’s the weeding out process. Abolish those nightmares and fantasies. What’s left? The possible actions we can accomplish. Possibilities!
That’s where I want to live.
You may find no greater hope for the possibilities you imagine, than those found in your dreams.
