Douglas Young

Reese, Aby & Haylee

Our kids spent a week away from us with Tisha’s parents, but now we are reunited. It was only a week, but it seemed like forever. They’ve spent a week away from us before, but for some reason this time it was different. They were safe and with people they love, but the distance between us and them still creates a feeling of despair.

I suppose this is what it feels like when He is separated from his children. He must yearn to be close to them. He must think about them all the time.

When we landed at Houston Hobby on Thursday, Tisha’s dad brought Haylee and Aby to pick us up at the airport. Tisha and I were both greeted with as big a hugs as our girls could offer. Those are moments I shall never forget.

The kids, especially Haylee and Reese, have been particularly clingy the last few days. I don’t mind it at all. I suspect, to a certain degree, that’s the way it ought to be. Isn’t that what God wants from us?

The other evening I got home a little later than normal, around the time my kids were going to bed. I kissed them each goodnight, as per their requests. Reese was already half asleep when he uttered, “Dad, can we pray?” I responded, “Sure bud!” and he commenced almost instantaneously.

One phrase has stuck with me ever since. “God, please take away my bad dreams, and Haylee’s, Aby’s, and mom and dad’s bad dreams too.” When he was done, I kissed him on the forehead and said, “Thank you, buddy.”

I’ve heard it said that whether we realize it or not, when we sleep we always dream. I’ve also heard it suggested that we, on average, have several dreams a night. No one may be poorer than me at remembering what I dream about, but I know that when I have bad dreams, I tend to remember them.

Growing up, I repeatedly had the same terrible dream that caused me to wake up screaming at the top of my lungs. Funny thing is that nothing that I remember about the dream itself was really frightening. It wasn’t as if Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees or Michael Meyers were hunting me down or anything like that. The dream that caused me to awaken in terror, night after night, was centered around my being trapped at the bottom of a hill as hundreds of wooden barrells plummeted down from the top. That’s it. No blood. No guts. No creepy figure from the big screen. Just me, a hill, and barrels.

As we experience them, dreams are very real to us. They may invoke any number of different kinds of emotions because they are tremendously powerful. Our minds, the most powerful tool God has given us, are intensely at work. A lot is going on while we dream, stirring up good and bad emotional responses.

So I’m not the least bit surprised that Reese prayed for God to take away his bad dreams. They are no small matter to him, and the depth to which he is affected by them is seen in his desire that God takes away the bad dreams from the rest of his family too!

God can do that. But God can do much more. He can take away the harmful effects of sin- guilt, shame, and emotional pain- by the power of his might. For that I am eternally grateful. But I’m also thankful that he can take away our bad dreams as well!

For two Sundays now, I have used the “mountain of the Lord’s house” imagery of Micah 4:1-2 and Isaiah 2:2-4 as the basis for coming to know the God of salvation in His Kingdom and Covenant. The similar prophecies from contemporary prophets were pivotal to first century Jews, but to people of our era, they just don’t seem to resonate. In fact, for some of us, these passages have been nothing more than proof texts for when and where the kingdom would be established.

To prove a point, I asked the audience, “If you saw your obedience to the gospel as a kind of “ascension” to the mountain of God’s house, please raise your hand.” Not a single hand was raised. Why?

To be sure, mountain imagery hardly resonates with Texans. In other geographical locals, where mountains are a part of the landscape, such imagery might be more customary, but not so here.

Also, something can be said about the context of the Micah and Isaiah passages. They home in on the transition between Jewish and Christian covenants. For first century Jews, they were statements of meaning into which they could personally relate. God’s house had been the Jerusalem temple, but a new spiritual house would be erected. The temple or “house” imagery would naturally have spoken to them, but not so much so to us.

The great challenge is to find if we can help give this imagery meaning to us. I am convinced, due to its lack of significance, that something is woefully lacking in me. So for my own soul’s benefit, I am in the process of ascending God’s mountain, because I do not want to miss out on something that God might have intended for me to behold as I better come to know him.