The Dream Road

     It is nighttime once again, but a much darker night than the others. You have retired to your bedroom after having attended the funeral of your best friend, Steven, who just days before,had seemed so young and full of life as he sat in church during Sunday services with a broad confident smile next to the woman that he intended to marry, speaking confidently about how they would someday do Christian missionary work in El Salvador. And yet, today, after the horrendous sudden accident on Interstate 95, how totally silent and inert in that casket he seemed. Yes, you will certainly miss him dearly.

     In the privacy of your small room, in deepest despair, you are pondering, the seemingly-endless tribulations that harass and threaten human futures in such sad and sudden ways.You consider the many noble goals that are suddenly prematurely truncated. Then sadly, you recall other dear ones, such as parents, aunts uncles and cousins, who had also suddenly disappeared without warning, exactly as your friend just did, and whom you are yearning to see once more, with all your heart.

     Yet, always, in the midst of all your uncertainties, like a beacon of light within the dense darkness, there has been the dream which arrives whenever you close your eyes and wished for an escape. So today, this day of profound sorrow, as you have been doing for most of your harried life, you slowly and very cautiously shut your eyes, and once more you suddenly find yourself walking along with a multitude of others down a familiar narrow road that tapers towards a narrow gate in the far horizon.

     Behind you, emerging from a region where you had once been, there are roiling clouds interspersed with forking lightning and the perpetually menacing rumble of thunder. You hesitate momentarily as you always have, yet as always, you feel impelled to trudge ahead obediently as if overpowered by some irresistible force that cares deeply for your well-being.

     You realize that you are experiencing that same persistent dream again, a dream-vision that has occurred repeatedly since your early childhood. It is a seemingly unavoidable vision whose essence of meaning never escapes you. Yet, despite your insight, you always find yourself glancing anxiously at the road’s edges. But there is nothing beyond the road’s beveled sides except a hopeless emptiness which imbues fear and causes you to instinctively recoil with caution.

     Gradually, as an illuminated, rectangular narrow gate draws nearer, you experience a profound sense of reassuring peace. The presence of a multitude others streaming back endlessly behind you disappearing into the receding roiling dark clouded horizon who will soon be where you are right now, comforts you. There are the extremely young, the middle-aged and extremely old, male and females, the rich and the poor, all staring ahead-with wonder-filled determined eyes and with Christian minds stubbornly rejecting the thoughts of utter hopeless desperation which strive constantly to divert them. Their steps, though sometimes unsure, remain smooth and effortless, and their constant silence seems always enigmatically profound.

     In your vivid vision, you and everyone else are always attired in white glowing gowns whose silk-like fabric ripples and undulates and gently sways at the touch of warm dreamlike Holy Spirit, as if it were a breeze emanating from the brightening horizon that looms ahead.

     As always, in the vision, an elderly man walks haltingly directly ahead of you, seemingly unaware of your presence, as if on a mission far too important for him to be distracted by the past. Yet, eventually, the decrepit old man always glances back, as if finally sensing your concern and smiles knowingly and compassionately. Then, as if heeding some distant call of urgent duty, he resumes his determined journey. Strange how he so very strongly resembles a far older version of yourself.

     Then, as always, a large flock of cawing crows suddenly streams high above, momentarily casting a shadow below. Some travelers directly beneath, cautiously bend low as if in fear." Fear not! This too will pass!" a man's deep, tender soft voice utters and assures them that all will turn out well if only they persist in having faith.

     As always, the fine details of the dream’s denouement never waver, and you know for certain, that in this dream, you and everyone else on this road, will always remain unharmed. That you will all soon hear the rapidly-approaching steps from a far distance behind you. You know that they will soon easily overtake you.That regardless of how often you might stumble or encounter obstacles along the way, very soon, you will be gazing back in amazement into the face of our beloved Lord of Lord and King of Kings who offered his life for our salvation. That he, in his infinite mercy, will guide you along the road until you will reside with him forever in his heavenly kingdom. You know that this promise will prove true, as it has always proven true in this dream.

     Then suddenly, just as quickly as it all had coalesced, it all suddenly fades away. Slowly you open your eyes, and it is morning once more! You are still in your small room lying on your bed on your back wrapped in woolen bed-sheets and staring up at the white ceiling wall that seems to glow iridescently as if having been exposed to some preternatural power.

     Cautiously you sweep aside the thick, window curtains and glance outside. A bright new precious day welcomes you. A brilliant new morning, adorned with snowflakes like miniature diamonds which are alighting delicately and draping all before you in a brilliant heavenly whiteness. While high up above it all, gleams the ever-present creator’s sun. For a brief moment, you ponder the death of your friend. A young man who had faithfully remained on the road to salvation by doing all that Christ had taught.

“He is ok!” you say to yourself in a soft whisper.

“He is with Him!”