I like dreams. I have a vivid memory of an expository dream I had as a young person.
Expository as intending to explain or describe something.
It was in color. I say this because others have asked in the past. And it happened right across the road from the house I grew up in, and was living in when I had the dream. I grew up in the country with a field across the road and one that bordered our backyard. Row crops, such as corn or soybeans, were the typical harvest. Sometimes the farmer grew hay.
In the dream, I was driving the combine. This was thrilling as farming was one of the three ideas I had for a career leaving high school. Growing things is very fulfilling to me.
I remember looking out the front windshield at bright green grass I was going to cut and bale. Yes, so green it would be too early to harvest typically. It was a beautiful sea of green as I drove around the field.
Then I looked behind me at the hopper. Yes, I was driving a combine set up for a different crop. This was not the set up to cut the grass, or rake it or bale it. It was the set up for soybeans. The cylinder of blades was on the front of the combine. This is a dream, so we can suspend the typical farming methods. And hopefully we do suspend those methods because what I found in the hopper was neither straw nor beans.
The hopper was filling quickly with brilliant yellow kernels of corn.
In the dream I saw neither a beginning nor an end. I do not recall climbing in to the cab of the combine. I did not see the corn go up the shoot and into the waiting semi-trailer headed to the grain bin. I dreamt the middle of the happening.
When I woke, I felt great. It was one of those dreams. I was refreshed and happy. No lingering puzzlement was with me in the new day.
I’ve mused about that dream over the years. I’ve never felt frustrated at the nonsensical method of farming. Always, I find myself focused on the transformation of the green grass to the yellow corn. Both so fertile and abundant.
I always sense that was God’s doing. It was not I nor the combine that changed things.
I share my special dream with you to share a couple of the reflections I carry from the dream.
When God transforms persons and communities, it is inspiring. I have seen God at work with the faithful. Always leaves me with a peaceful hopeful feeling.
Barren trees are not fruitful. I dreamt of a fertile field with a fertile yield. God provides both for us to engage.
FCC Salem has a fertile history both distant and near. Our present is burst with potential. Walking together into the future, I feel as confident and happy as I did when I woke from that dream.
What do you see in the hopper?
Sacred Stirrings 