"The Dreams that will Never Die"

I am submitting this short fiction story to the Faith and Culture Writer's Conference. I wanted you, my friends, to enjoy it first.

“The Dreams that will Never Die”

Do you believe in dreams?

I don’t mean the common type that come and go from our conscious as though they never existed. I’m asking if you believe in compelling dreams - the type that really matter. Dreams so powerful, so impressionable, that they could change your inmost being; even alter the direction of life itself.

I was once uncertain of such dreams, but not anymore. I myself was persuaded by a vision first hand.

In my dream, I laid upon an open grass field on a dark summer night. Without a cloud in sight, I admiringly looked up toward the shining stars. While considering their beauty, the feelings of jealousy, envy – even resentment, came upon me. Why? Because I wanted to be like those stars. I wanted to shine as they did.

No sooner than had the thought come from my mind, I was suddenly pulled up toward the night sky that I had gazed upon. I traveled at what felt like the speed of light from the earth’s atmosphere; pulled out passed the moon – passed the stars I had just envied.

I travelled at this speed for only seconds. And then, without a moments warning, I saw Him - the Master of all creation. As I drew closer, my speed began to slow as His face came into view. I was struck by His somber and earnest appearance. I was speechless, not just because of His beauty, but simply because my lips had been sealed by Him. A part of me wanted to speak, but it couldn’t. The Lord had silenced me and caused a calm to come over me. As I looked upon Him, my eyes began to tear. I wish I could tell you what I saw in Him, but it is impossible to define what love looks like after you have seen it in its fullness.

I glided gently towards the Lord until He placed me by His side. Without a word, He placed His arm around me with embrace. When His hand touched my shoulder, I felt something like a light enter into my body. I was ready to let Him hold me forever, but I sensed that He had brought me to Him to talk about something incomprehensibly important. With His arm still around me, we hovered back toward the earth, back through the stars that surrounded human creation.

It wasn’t until the earth was in clear view that we stopped. He looked at me and somehow I knew that my eyes were not to look back at Him. The Lord wanted me to keep my gaze pinned on the earth. As I looked upon His creation, He asked me, “What do you see?” I peered toward the earth and noticed something peculiar. There were millions of little lights that were shining, like the stars of the night, only jumbled throughout the circle of the earth. Some lights were dim, very dim, others shined brightly. Some lights stood still in one place, others moved to and fro throughout creation, and every once in a while one would shoot up straight towards heaven. As I continued to look, I also noticed another type of light shrouded in black and gray. They could hardly be called a light, they looked more like a dark glow, and it troubled my spirit when I looked upon them. Even more alarming, sometimes these dark lights consumed themselves.

After looking, I was able to open my mouth and speak. I answered the Lord saying, “I see lights, lots of them. Some make me feel troubled when I look upon them, others inspire me.

The Lord opened His mouth and spoke again, “The lights that you see are dreams.”

“Dreams?” I questioned. “Lord, is this what You see when looking upon the earth?”

“It is one of many important things that I see.” He said to me.

As I continued to look upon the lights I became more concerned with the dark lights on the earth as I watched them consume themselves. “What are those lights of darkness?” I asked the Lord.

“I call them, the dark dreamers. Those are the people of the earth who have dreams, but their dreams have nothing to do with Me. They dream dreams that neither help the earth or anyone in the earth. They only dream self-absorbed dreams. Dreams that not only consume others, but will also, in the end, consume themselves. They are dreams that will die, and yet, are already dead.”

“Could their dreams ever come alive?” I asked.

“Only if I would touch them, but those dreamers are not interested My touch, for all that they dream, all that they scheme, is for the purpose of building up only a kingdom that they want to see.”

After His explanation, all the other lights instantly made sense to me. I turned my head to Him and said “Lord, I think I understand the other lights. All those who shine are dreamers that want to build up Your kingdom. Matter of fact, they already are Your Kingdom.”

He grinned at me and said, “That’s right.” He waited for me to go on.

I turned my gaze back to the earth and continued, “The brighter lights, their dreams have been realized, but theirs has not yet moved because they have kept their dream only to themselves. Those who share their dreams with others are the ones that move to and fro about the earth, and the dreams that shoot up to heaven, those are special.”

God smiled and laughed with joy when I called them special dreams. “Most special”, He said, “Because those are the dreams released into the hands of the Holy Spirit and taken to my throne. The angels look and wait for such dreams to enter My kingdom, and they rejoice because the angels know that I am about to bless that dream and their dreamer.”

“It’s wonderful Lord!” My spirit nearly burst out in praise and singing but the Lord spoke again before I could.

“You know, there is one type of light that you left out.” A deep chord struck within me when He said this. I turned my eyes once again to the earth and was surprised to see that only the dim lights remained.

“Why are you showing me these lights Lord?”

“Because these are the dreams that I want you to help awaken. They are dreams that I have placed in My people, but they don’t believe that they have what it takes to make that dream come alive. They are afraid - afraid to fail, afraid to be judged, afraid that they don’t have what it takes to make the dream shine on the earth.”

My heart broke when He said this to me. So much potential lay before my eyes, and it was all but fear that kept that potential from bringing glory, and honor, and blessing to God.

“Lord” I said, “What would you have me do?”

“I want you to remind them about this.” He waved His hand over the surface of the earth and it became formless and void with nothing but darkness sweeping over it.

“Well, this is depressing” I said.

God laughed, “Well, what isn’t depressing if I haven’t placed My hand on it yet? What I am showing you is your world, before I touched it. Your world was once blank, BUT, I came to cover the earth with beauty; I made it go from blank to beautiful.” He then waved His hand over the earth again, and it teemed with inexpressible life and beauty.

“This was My dream, from the beginning.” God said, “And just as I dreamed and created beauty, so also should the whole of human creation, because I made them in My image. Go and tell them, tell them to bear My image and create as I did. Remind them, those dreamers who fear, that they were made to create - because I create. And when they create, I see them as even more than the stars that shine, for they are my lights that will shine for all eternity. They are, and they carry within themselves, the dreams that will never die.”