Dreaming

I’m dreaming of a white Christmas … Christmas might be more than dreams but its not less than dreams.

You see her at a light: a young, hard looking woman with her haired pulled back in a convenient pony tail, two kids in car seats and the window rolled down part way to let the cigarette smoke drift out. And from her rear view mirror hangs a “dream catcher” … the circle shaped frame crisscrossed with leather cords, feathers dangling off the bottom rung. It doesn't matter that you don’t know her: because you’ve met her: an anonymous life in a world of need. Single and abandoned with toddlers, she could stand to catch a dream.

And you know him too. He swings out the door of his F150 pick up, his pants and his cowboy buckle not quite enough to restrain the belly that folds over his belt. He’s got a dream catcher in his truck too. He’s been trying to catch a dream forever it seems. And time keeps sliding by.

The Christmas story is littered with dreams. Joseph. The Wise Men. Elizabeth. Dreams that did not have to be caught. Dreams that were simply given by God. Dreams that changed how we came to understand God and what He is up to in this world.

Still, in this world, we see lot’s of folks hoping to catch a dream. Maybe any kind of dream would do. Anything other than what they experience every day...what they are living with every day. But most seem to helplessly, hopelessly chase dreams rather than catch them. Most end up with dream catchers dangling from a rear view mirror, hoping for the best. And all they catch is a dream catcher.

So maybe that’s part of the reason God simply gives dreams. He uses dreams to communicate in the original Christmas story because He is a dream giver not simply Someone who throws a dream out there to be caught at random in a dream catcher. Maybe He knows more about the people are hoping to catch a dream than they can even guess. Mabye they need to know He loves them and has a dream for their life that they cannot imagine possible.

And maybe our task is simply to give such people the dream God would have them catch: someone who loves them no matter how broken they seem ... how disappointed they are ... how they are hoping against hope that life can be different for them. Maybe.

…just thinkling