Most folks are such dreamers!

I don't mean dreamers like "wishful thinking", aka Don Knotts in The Incredible Mr Limpet or Weird Al's movie UHF. Not daydreaming or fantasizing, but the kind of stuff that comes to you when you're asleep. Dreaming is a little like a trip without drugs involved, where you are there but you don't seem to actually "control" what's happening to you or know what is coming up next.

Dreams can be about mundane stuff that happens in our day to day lives, and sometimes it can be about the strangest things involving impossible situations and people who are past, present, and future all rolled into one. Time means nothing. Apparently dreams can also be influenced by coffee, pizza, a dab of mustard (says Scrooge) and yes even God.

One of the depressing things about dreams (but probably a blessing rather than a curse) is that we quickly forget them once we wake up, at least most times. It seems to depend on how fast we wake up fully. Myself, I have dreams of the end of the world over and over, I am not sure why but somehow I am providing for a group of people who are in need of food and shelter. Sometimes it's on a farm, often it's in an empty city, but always there are few of us and we huddle together and survive (and I am the leader - hey they are my dreams, get your own!)

Joseph the son of Jacob, one of the famous dream-related bible characters, hung around a baker, a pharaoh, and a butler who had no problems remembering their dreams. Joseph himself had a couple that he was happy to tell his own family about. They all seemed to work together to accomplish God's purpose.

Daniel had some "associates" who had dreams. One wanted an interpretation but couldn't remember the dream itself because it had "fled" him. You could argue that one of the dreams Daniel interpreted was had while the person was wide awake, and had by a bunch of people at the same time. Of course you could also argue that a disembodied hand literally appeared and literally wrote on the wall, but you get the idea.

The other Joseph, the husband of Mary, had a few good dreams too. Like the other dreams of the bible, they told the future and in this case gave warning on how to protect the baby Jesus. Joseph didn't seem to have any trouble remembering the message or obeying God. Those wise guys that were involved here also managed to elude Herod for similar reasons.

What other dreams appear in scripture? There was one involving Sarah and her status as a "sister". Jacob and his ladder. Gideon and a loaf of tent-smashing bread. Solomon's gift of wisdom. Pilate's wife. In other words, a whole bunch of them.

So what, you might ask? Well, here's the deal. One, it's cool just to focus on dreams in scripture and the way they are used by God.. Two, while there were a lot of true dreams in the bible, there were plenty of false ones too. There were plenty of out and out liars, too, who made themselves and their dreams out to be something when they were not. God warned that anyone who had a dream that was not in agreement with his teachings or his will was not to be listened to. So when people have dreams today, like the lady I heard on TV a while ago, that "tell" them to go out and spread some false doctrine I think I know where that dream came from. If you don't think "strong delusions" and dreams are close cousins, then you're "dreaming." Think about it!

Randy