Nocturnal Mystery

Does God come to us in our dreams?  Does He speak to us while we sleep?  While everything around and within us is still in the silence?  The question of the night takes us to Jacob who dreamed at Betheel of a ladder reaching from earth to heaven (Genesis 28:10) and later as the journey away from home took him toward home, he wrestled all night with God at Peniel?  It causes us to remember Moses, the man who dared to wrestle with the dreams of others.  And, of course, there is Joseph, the dreamer, who conversed with an angel sent from God in the dark sub-consciousness of the soul.   

As we learn what the Word teaches us and consider the gifts of grace which God has given us while we sleep, we know He is not just the Visitor in our dreams, but the Maker of them.  While some of our dreams are so bizarre that any meaning is hidden deep in mystery, others seem to stir our resting souls in ways that cause us to awake saying those words of Jacob, "Surely the Lord is in this place..." (Genesis 28:16)    

Why does He choose to come in such a way?  Sometimes, we awake knowing.  The Word is as clear as if written in the clouds.  Sometimes there is nothing to know except God was in the dreaming, the source of the dream, and the One who alone knows exactly what Word He has shrouded in the holy mystery.  It is not always for us to know what we would like to know, but even in those moments of nocturnal mystery, we know He has been present in the deep places of our spirit and such awareness is more than enough.  With the ancient dreamer we can only say, "How awesome is this place."  (Genesis 28:17)