Dream
a dream, a hopeful dream, as children do
on Christmas Eve,
imaginings, surprising thing, to hold and to believe.
Christmas is a time of dreaming – a young boy boards
a Christmas train to Santa’s village – and learns about kindness, courage,
friendships, the true spirit of Christmas – simple dreams, and faith. A man
shrivelled in his soul, who shuts out life – visited in dreams by four
messengers – Spirits – who come to reclaim his soul to new life. In the Hebrew
Scriptures – Joseph dreams; Micah the prophet dreams; Samuel dreams a call to
ministry. In the New Testament, Elizabeth dreams a messenger who tells her she
will have a child named John; Mary dreams an angel telling her she will have a
child, - God-with-Us, Emmanuel; Joseph dreams the word that Mary tells the
truth; he dreams again – a call to run from Herod – and Joseph, Mary and Jesus become
refugees in another country; the Magi follow a light in the sky, and are led in
dreams. All of them are dreams full of hope, imaginings – things which
surprise, which tell a story - and which
offer something to hold, and believe. God’s dream, God’s imagination at work,
God surprising the human world, every year as we re-create the birth of what we
hold and believe.
Dream
a peace, our planet’s peace, the greening of the earth at play;
the holy ground where life is found, where God
has touched the clay.
The Garden of Eden – the earth growing, greener and
greener, full of beautiful things coming from the imagination of the Creator. A tiny spinning planet, off in an obscure
corner of a huge galaxy, in an even larger universe. A dream made real. Human
beings, rising from the holy ground where God’s fingers reached into the clay
and began to work. Generation after generation of children born, and the hope
and dreams wrapped up in each of them, and their imaginations and dreams
creating other things, time passing and the dreams coming into reality. Dreams
to hold and believe – that the earth can be green, that people can and will
live in peace with each other.
Dream
a gift, the Christmas gift that changes everything we see;
the shimmering of angel wing, the Child the
mystery.
Gifts. Throughout the centuries people in many
places gathered on December 21 to celebrate the shortest day and the longest
night. Gifts were given, prayers offered. Christmas too, the Christ-Mass, became
part of those celebrations, and they became part of us. The celebration of the
birth of a child, new life, a seemingly ordinary baby, yet a child with a
vision – a dream – the realm of God, holy ground where life is found, where the
earth is green and blooming, where people live together with each other – in
peace. Looking through the eyes of Jesus, everything around us changes and we
see in a new way. A child, a mystery, the hope of faith, the one to follow.
“Don’t be afraid” said the shimmering angel . “You
will have a child and you will call him Emmanuel which means ‘God is with us’.
“Don’t be afraid” said the shimmering angels to the shepherds sitting out in
the fields - “We bring news of great
joy. A child is born, who will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Prince of Peace. “ And they sang and sang. And the shepherds went, right away,
to see this miracle.
Dream a dream – Love has come among us. Love is born
this night. Dream, and live.
"Dream a Dream" words by Shirley Erena Murray. Music by Ron Klusmeier.
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