Several people I know have told me I should share my dreams (since they are many), but I’ve been hesitant. Many are kinda personal, unusual, forgettable, or not worth sharing, but from time to time I have a dream that I can’t let go of. Every detail sticks in my head hours after I dreamt it. Last night I had one of the oddly metaphorical dreams and the more I thought about it and kept trying to figure out what the point was I realized it’s not just one meaning and not just about me. It felt like something I had to share so everybody could be encourage and/or be called. For the broken hearted and the rebels without a cause.
Beyond the Wall-
I had felt like part of my world was cut off from me. There was a giant wall that I had never noticed before and was suddenly stopping me on my journey. It stood tall and thin. Large gray stone bricks fitting perfectly together. I could have left it alone and moved on, but I felt like I had to see what was on the other side of the wall. Something called me to it. I had to know. I tried climbing it. I tried beating at it. I tried digging under it. To no avail were any of my attempts. There was nothing I could do to get past it. When I finally stopped trying and said to myself “If God wants me to see what’s over there he will.” Then suddenly a large puff of wind came and knocked it down. It fell crumbling into ruins. I climbed over the rubble of the once indestructible wall into a baron waste land.
The dirt was gray and dry. So lifeless. Like an empty desert as far I could see. I had wanted so bad to know what was beyond the wall and felt like I was being called forward so I ventured into the deserted landscape of rolling gray hills. Not a sound of birds or insects. It was so quiet, just a low hum of wind across the plain. I pressed onward till I felt like it was pointless. I found myself frustrated. I wanted so bad to know what was beyond that wall. I’d worked so hard to get past it, and this was all there was. I wanted to go back where everything was familiar to me, but as I gave thought to turning around and trying to find my way back (whether or not I could) I felt again like I was being called forward.
“Just a little further” was the voice on the wind. So I pressed on a little further and found a stone structure, a pillar in the center that had water springing from the top down into a pool. Not a drop of the water touch the dry soil under my feet. It was a strange sight in the middle of all the gray dry land. I’m not sure what exactly called me to do what I did next, but it just felt right. I scooped up some of the water in my hands and I let it trickle into the dry dirt. It became mud and then began to grow grass and flowers.
It didn’t stop there, the grass started to expand followed by the flowers. So many colors started to surround me and it didn’t stop spreading. It continued to bring life across the dead landscape. As far as my eyes could see it was greens, yellows, pinks, blues, purples. Everything was teeming with life and vibrancy. It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. The rolling gray hills were filled with so many colors and so much life. Not a patch of gray remained. I’ve never seen anything like it. Then I woke up.
Afterthoughts-
I’ve been thinking about it all day. The empty landscape made plentiful by a few drops of water. This dead landscape that I wanted to run from made so alive. It’s the water of life that can change and heal any heart. It’s God who has this kind of power to take something small and make it expand as far as the eye can see. I feel like there are two meanings, the first a heart that is dry or broken made beautiful and healed from it’s hollow. The Lord restores the broken hearted when we let him. And he can make any heart new. It reminds me that every troubled heart can come to him and we can be washed clean and become teeming with life like the baron waste land to a garden of such color and beauty.
The second meaning is the call to all Christians. It tells me that we as Christians have a mission to seek out this water, to trust God to break down any wall that stands in our way and press on through the troubling world to find this water of life that we know can heal our own hearts, but can also heal the hearts of everyone else. We need to share this life, and we need to be like the helpers in the garden and bring water to the dead world so God can bring it to live.
I want to be made beautiful again, and I want to share that beauty with the world. This is my dream that I share with everyone who no longer wants to be dry like dirt, but wants to be made beautiful and plentiful like we have been made to be by our Lord and Savior.
-Dan