Thursday, August 30, 2007

Red and White Stones

I was going to make this a chapter in my story about the Bride and her Beloved, but doing a little research makes me see I need to stop and record what I found.

My love--you know how you wonder about what leads us. "Maybe you're just psychic, a precog--not particularly involved in something relational with a Creator-being, just wired to be different. maybe that's all our dreams are, psychic stuff." you say. And this statement comes as I give you evidence to support it: dreaming that a friend is in danger of losing her baby, dreaming I become one with the child's mind, being its voice as it say it wants to share life with the mother, and dreaming people/angels stop what they are doing to help in this cause. Then I learn a few days later that even as I dreamed this, that very friend of mine was indeed needing such a dream-prayer, as she was 9 weeks pregnant (which I knew) and was so severely dehydrated that she was hospitalized for three days (which I did not know until after the fact.) She's fine now, but how strange that such things continue to happen in my nocturnal life.
But as to whether such things are guided by a benevolent creator or not, you feel a nagging doubt, for where else do we see evidence of His benelovence in our lives? And I can certainly understand your having questions, not bitterness so much as legitimate questions. How can we know? I think there are other things to consider--ones that tie what I/we "see" in these dreams to Scripture and to life, and do indeed point to a personality that speaks their origins. For example--and I told you about this one yesterday while I was still in my questing stage for an answer to this little riddle: I dreamed of a red gem stone followed by a white gem stone as they "skipped" across my field of vision. This happened a little less than a year ago. I pondered it a while, as despite its brevity, it had that "super-dream" quality to it...but eventually without further revelation, I forgot it. Then yesterday, I did a load of laundry, and as I pulled the clothes out of the washer, at the bottom of the tank I found two little stones--the polished ones that are used in games like mancala, etc. One red one, one white one. The dream came again and hit me full force. Still, though I had no idea what their reference might be. I prayed, "God, what is the point in showing me these little stones, the red one and white one--the blue one, if there is to be no context for them?" (The blue one was another old dream that came back because it became real in my life. I dreamed this one about a year and a half ago(?) In it, I sat down at a new desk at work and as I cleared the drawers of stuff left behind by the previous owner, a blue stone, like a little blue pearl, was in a drawer--a stone that I realized mattered a lot, as it was the missing one from an antiqued-silver figurine I had. I got the figurine and sure enough, the stone fit exactly. Now I just needed glue to make it stay in place. This was the dream. Then last week, I received a different desk for this school year, as mine was accidentally appropriated for another room over the summer break. As I went through the drawers of my "new" desk, one that had belonged to my youngest son's teacher last year, and pulled out her stuff to return it all to her, guess what I found in the drawer? A blue stone...not a pearl exactly, but enough in keeping with the events of the dream and its stone that it all popped back into my mind.) What is the meaning behind the little stones? What are they telling me to do, to pray?

Then I sat down today and began to look for a reference for the next installment in the little poetic work I'm doing here regarding the Bride and the Christ, and as I read the reference I was seeking--seeking for an altogether different reason--I found Narnia, so to speak. I saw the red and white clothing and realized why these references, what I am to pray, and that these are not the things of random psychic flotsam in a cosmic consciousness, but are directed, and have been prearranged, preannounced, and now explained with meticulous care. The main thing that strikes me is that my own daily life again must recede into the realm of "that which doesn't matter as much as I think it does." For a Being awaits the work of prayer to be accomplished, waits to ride out on a white horse; and his robe is dipped in blood, and he is followed by an army robed in white. Like two small stones skipping out, on their way to being at the bottom of a profound cleansing of all other robes. In the language of the One who speaks to me, it is as loud as audible words to my physical self. I can question the significance of my own daily travails to the One who makes such pronouncements, but His existence is irrefutable to me. I pray that we make it through these trials to stand side by side in His strength again soon, my love! I pray that most diligently!
And I pray--with the words of a child and not a wise man--that the red and white stones do indeed go skipping on their way!

The prompt:
Revelation 19:10-14
"...Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."
Christ on a White Horse
11 Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. 12 His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. 13 He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses.

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