God of Dreams

Our God is a God of dreams. And He starts fairly early in His Word. 

Remember Joseph? He's the favored son of Jacob, the firstborn (and for awhile, only-born) son of beloved wife Rachel. Then, Joseph starts having dreams. He has dreams that his brothers and father will bow down to him. 

We all know that eventually, these dreams come true, as Jacob's other sons travel to Egypt to buy grain from the brother they sold into slavery decades ago but no longer even recognize. They come bearing gifts and money, and they bow down and beg for his mercy to save their - and their father's - life. They're hungry, and only Joseph can feed them. 

But notice what dreams Joseph isn't having. God doesn't give Joseph dreams of being thrown into a cistern in the middle of nowhere. He doesn't give Joseph dreams of being sold into slavery to a passing caravan. He doesn't give Joseph dreams of being carried off to Egypt. He doesn't give Joseph dreams of being falsely accused of rape. He doesn't give Joseph dreams of spending years in an Egyptian prison. 

None of those very true things, things that God knew were going to happen, were part of Joseph's dreams. 

Those would have been nightmares. 

Most of us aren't equipped to handle, even in faith, the full reality of the story God is writing for us. The truth is that most of our stories will have twists like Joseph's - bitterness, jealousy, betrayal, capture, foreignness, imprisonment (even if only in our own minds - we will be caught up in things we can't find our way out of). We want to think that the dream is just that, the dream, the whole picture. That the moment we get a glimpse of the world bowing down to us, that's just what happens. 

But most of the time, it's not. Most of the time, our stories take these twists and turns and have these moments that, had God shown them to us from the beginning, would not have been dreams, but nightmares. Maybe that's why He doesn't. 

Our God is a God of dreams. He loves showing us the wonderful, beautiful, glorious things that are going to happen in our story...or perhaps because of it. And the dreams are the things that we hold onto when the nightmares come. 

Joseph made it through those hard times because he knew the good times were coming. He knew God was going to do what He promised to do. He knew his dreams were not just figments of his imagination, but promises of God. 

What dream has God spoken over your life?