This has been a bit of a weird week spiritually - lots of intense dreams at night - not always retained, but the depth and intensity leave an impression, even when the images and words drift away. I'll write a proper entry later today or tomorrow, but for now I just wanted to put up a dream I had this morning. I woke up, and the image was powerful - God again sharing His Father heart with me indirectly, and whispering the words "You're not alone." I sat down at my computer right away to write this dream down before it faded. And, I thought I'd share it with you. I wrote down the somewhat skeletal version, not bothering to describe all the colors and details and so forth. My dreams are usually like full-color movies - things I watch - I am usually some sort of omnisicient figure - present and feeling what the characters in my dreams feel, but with knowledge that I (as Lisa) shouldn't have. Anyway, the dream...
I had a powerful dream this morning, just before I woke.
Let me give you a setting first. It seemed somewhat rural – fields of tall crops, gravel roads, barns and so forth. Probably turn of the century – some things fit very clearly into a time period of the nineteen twenties, some are probably closer to the nineteen fifties, some elements are clearly modern in nature.
There are a group of people, who, for a reason that isn’t immediately clear are trying to flee the community in which they’re living. They try a number of different methods of escape, but always find themselves caught as they’re leaving, and forced to stay within the community. It slowly becomes clear that part of what these people are trying to escape is a sense of religious oppression – the historical example that comes to mind is the pilgrims – fleeing their homeland in hope of freedom of worship somewhere else.
And then, there comes what is clearly their climactic escape attempt. It’s at night, and they’re moving through the fields, working to be as quiet as possible. One young woman manages to get into an airplane – serving as a distraction from some people who almost spot the rest of the community. She manages to escape, despite serving as a distraction, and leaves her child in the care of the other community members. Somehow it is known to me that it is her husband piloting the plane and spiriting her to freedom.
In order to escape the town, they must climb a gravel road up a steep hill, right next to the home of what is somehow associated as their pastor’s home. So they are climbing and slipping, and trying desperately to do this silently, but it’s a gravel road, and silence isn’t all that easy. As they summit the hill, and come around to the front of the house, as they’re just about to make their escape, the lights in front of the house come on, and there is the pastor, and his wife, and a number of other people from their community. Essentially, the plot is foiled once again and they will have to stay.
The pastor, standing next to his wife who is sitting and looking quite stoic, looks over the people caught trying to flee, and settles his gaze on the child who had been left by her mother. He asks her if she would like to explain what is going on that evening. Just as she is opening her mouth to begin speaking, her mother and father walk up the hill and join her. Her mother strokes her hair. Her father is this picture of strength and love. He has obviously been free from this community for sometime, and has now chosen to return and be with his wife and child. And so the girl begins to speak, “I don’t know why he came back tonight, except that I know that he loves me,” (and tears are running down her face now, but her face is overflowing with love, with peace and strength), “and I know that what He did tonight for me is the clearest picture of what Jesus did for this community and for me.”
And then I woke. “The clearest picture of what Jesus did for this community.” He took on human form, made Himself a peasant without citizenship in one of the most oppressive empires in history, and served humanity. He loved and poured Himself out. He gave His life for the world to demonstrate His love. He returned to oppression in order to demonstrate true freedom.
