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What dreams may come
Thursday, December 18, 2014
Third Week of Advent
Matthew 1:20-21
The angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
The pillow’s soft, the sheets are smooth, and I’m very very ready for sleep. Closing eyes I’m gone. The night sounds fade and disappear, and circadian sleep holds me in its tender hands. What joy, this daily disappearing.
Joseph may not sleep so easily, wrestling with what he’s heard about his sweetheart. He feels betrayed and angry. He feels confused when Mary shares her story with such passion and pain, and with real sincerity.
An all-night camera captures Joseph tossing, tearing at the sheets, uncomfortable even as he falls away. Then the dream comes. Gabriel speaks to him. We watch his sleeping body grow still and nearly stop breathing. Then in an instant his eyes flash wide open. Lying there he remembers, and jumps out of bed. In the very early morning he runs to Mary’s house and rouses her family, and tells Mary what he’s seen and heard.
They are together now as they should be, in heart and action. Held by peace, knowing together the words of the angel, they trust each other and give themselves over to God. They don’t have to understand. God’s love and God’s strength pour into them.
“Let it be unto me as you have said.” Joseph echoes Mary’s words and goes about his day. Work. Carpentry. Preparing for marriage. Looking at his friends with new eyes of love for Mary and acceptance of her pregnancy. They don’t get it; overnight he is a new man. He smiles. Gabriel’s words make him smile.
Lord, give me dreams like Joseph’s sometimes, which hold me in their grip and wake me up with calm assurance. Let your joy and your love and your strength pour into me while I sleep, and pour out of me into the lives of so many others, all together your children, all together family.
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