Dreams
While preparing to write this column I Googled the word “dreams” to get a little information. The website that came up said, “Dreams are stories and images that our minds create while we sleep. They are an enduring source of mystery for scientists and psychological doctors. Why do dreams occur? What causes them? Can we control them? What do they mean?”
Three of the facts about dreams that were given were: “we may not remember dreaming, but everyone is thought to dream between 3 and 6 times per night, it is thought that each dream lasts between 5 to 20 minutes, and around 95 % of dreams are forgotten by the time a person gets out of bed.”
With all that being said, I awakened on Tuesday, February 6, 2024, from a dream that I did remember, at least bits and pieces of. I don’t know why I was in the hospital in this dream (I don’t remember that part of the dream), but whatever the cause of my hospitalization, I was very close to death. So close, in fact, that I was seeing the light and heading toward it. Also, in the dream my daughter was in the hospital room holding my hand and beckoning me back to this world, but I didn’t want to stay. The scene that I was seeing was very beautiful and inviting, and while I love my family here, I longed to go on toward the light.
After I awakened, I was pondering the reason for the dream and the meaning behind it. Like the scientists and psychological doctors mentioned in the post above, I didn’t figure it out. But as I pondered and puttered around the house getting ready to head to work I remembered the words to the song I’d heard on Sunday on a CD by the Inspirations, Heaven’s Sounding Sweeter All The Time. For clarification purposes let me take a moment to say, “I do not own the rights to these lyrics” but they were posted on the internet for all the world to see… “Heaven’s sounding sweeter all the time. It seems like lately it’s always on my mind. Someday I’ll leave this world behind. Oh heaven’s sounding sweeter all the time.”
When we lose a loved one, someone that has professed salvation through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we hold fast to the assurance that their suffering and pain is over and we can be with them again someday in heaven.
But…there is a flip side to every story. While my dream was not scary or troublesome, in the way that a nightmare would be, it did cause me to think about something troubling; the flip side of knowing you have a home in heaven after this life ends.
I was reminded of a true story of a man who I knew personally. He lived his life, went to work every day, did a lot of hunting and fishing, and although various people talked to him about God, he could never find it in his heart to believe. He would emphatically deny God and avoid any conversation about him.
This man suffered a number of heart attacks before his death ranging from mild in the beginning to the final one that took his life. In the hospital on the day he died, he complained of his feet being hot. So his wife removed his shoes and socks…which didn’t help. She took a paper and tried to cool his feet by fanning them…it didn’t help. As his condition deteriorated he became fidgety repeating that his feet were hot. His final words in this world were, “I’m burning up! I’m burning up!”
The most important thing a person can do in life is prepare for eternity. On that same CD of the Inspirations there’s a song titled, Then What? It highlights a conversation between two men on a bus. One enquires of the other about his life. Periodically throughout the song the older man asks, “Then what, have you thought about the date you have with destiny. Have you made your plans to step into eternity? As you’ve made your plans to live, have you planned to live again? When it’s all said and done…then what?”
While I don’t know why I dreamed what I dreamed when I dreamt it, I guess my dream was to bring me to the question of the day. Have you thought about the date you have with destiny? Ready or not, it’s coming.
