It is no secret that Our Creator has given each of us eyes to see. Most are blessed to see the sun rise and set, the smile of our first born, the beautiful sway of a flower in the wind. That is a wonderful and amazing blessing but it’s only a portion of the vision we have been given.
Photo Credit via Nomadic Lass
We are given vision of the heart to see love all around us. Do you ever look at two people and, without knowing anything about them, know that they love each other profoundly? It could be the couple in the park or the mother and son at the grocery. You just know there is great love there. Have you ever looked someone who just glowed? They have a light coming from them that is undeniably beautiful. You can see their love.
We are also given vision to see heartache and pain. Have you ever looked at someone who is in grief and you could see it wretch their body? We have these expressions like “stricken with grief” for a reason. There is a whole other realm of intangible things that we are given the vision to see. We, quite literally, see feelings, hate, sadness, energy and love.
Do you ever wonder what else you may see? If we can see the tangible (the sunrise and Earth) and we can see the intangible (feelings and love) could we see other things too?
What is a dream? The dictionary definition is this: A series of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations occurring involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. A few things strike me about this: 1. a dream is not just images flashing across a screen. It includes ideas, emotions and sensations all jumbled together and 2. dreams are involuntary. In other words, we don’t control them.
We live in a world where sleep evades many. “Sleeping pills” are prescribed more now than at any time in history. The National Sleep Foundation indicates that 63 percent of women and 54 percent of men report symptoms of insomnia at least 3 times a week. What is it with sleep? Why are we so troubled to sleep? It could be caffeine or too much stimulation or environmental or a medical affliction. But, I think it is more.
There was a time in my life where I really struggled to go to sleep. I lived in great fear and anxiety. I believed I had to control everything in this world and that it was all on me to keep all the proverbial balls in the air. I think on some level I was afraid to go to sleep. I think I wanted to control my thoughts too. I was afraid of what I might dream. I was afraid of the images, ideas, emotions and sensations I might experience in the involuntary state, this state I could not control.
In that involuntary state, God can show us things He wants us to know. He can reveal the unseen or the things we resist acknowledging in our waking hours. Our sleep is not only a great time of healing and restoring physically, it is also a time of great healing and restoring spiritually. It is a time of great vision.
Albert Einstein attributed his theory of relativity to a dream he had. Niel Bohr received a Noble prize for his quantum theory, which he claimed came from a dream. Elias Howe had a dream that gave him an idea to invent the sewing machine. Most dreams have a message. It may be easier to believe dreams are simply from an over active mind, but I don’t buy it.
Instead of grabbing the sleeping pill, we should reach for God. Maybe we ask Him for peaceful rest. And, if we have one of those disturbing dreams, we give it to Him when we awaken. Chances are those things were revealed to us so that they could be healed for us. Our hours of slumber really are a time to get out of the way of the perfect will for our lives. Our dreams are night parables. Tonight, I hope you enjoy your story.
“For in one way God may speak, and in a second, but one does not regard it. In a dream, a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men; while they slumber on the bed, then He opens the ear of men and seals their instruction” (Job 33:14 LITV).