Always A Dreamer!

Getting jump-started for Monday, August 4, 2008. As I sit here a little after 5 a.m., on a Monday morning listening to Christmas music on the internet I’m reminded that lately I have been looking at winter scenes out on the web more and more. Some of the really beautiful ones are most likely nearly impossible to survive due to the huge amounts of snow and ice but just looking at the photos fuels my hope that when the season changes we will be able to say farewell to this oppressive heat. (I am, at the same time, so very thankful to God for a sudden, unexpected, brief rain storm, yesterday afternoon.) There may be some who find fault with this type of escapism but now you know, and I’ve been doing it for most of my life.

I stumbled on a blog dated back in February written by a guy who was doing the same thing I have been doing, only he was looking at scenes of a warmer climate hoping to soon put a harsh winter behind him. To be honest, I suppose our winters are so mild that I cannot recall it being such that I have ever dreamed about going to the swimming hole or longing for the dog days of summer. It’s pretty sobering to think just how powerful images can be. Images are pictures. Pictures communicate messages to our brain and we are able to respond in ways that can be positive or in some cases very negative that can lead to something harmful.

I’ve always tried to think in pictures. I love doing this when I read accounts from the Bible. Seeing real people in the context drawn from the words of Scripture can make a text come alive. Jesus was the Perfect Teacher and He chose to paint word pictures in communicating truth to His hearers. No doubt we all have been very influenced by images stuck in our mind regarding particular characters, events, and teachings from the Bible. How many folks actually see Charleston Heston every time they hear Moses mentioned? While none of us have ever seen a real crucifixion, most could pencil a sketch because of seeing that image of our Savior on the cross so many times.

I’m not saying the ambient temperature changes any at all whenever I see an image of a huge snowdrift but in my mind’s eye I visit that far away place and it does something for me. I can hear the wind howling and picture myself in the scene. Okay, before you call the folks in white jackets to come and pick me up, let me quickly add that one cannot live in this mode except in brief flashes. The real world is clanging away for every bit of our attention and we do have a responsibility to answer its call. That’s a given but I do like my brief travels to a different place even if it is measured only in nanoseconds. (I believe that’s billionths of a second.)

I’ve always been a sucker for those time travel movies. It has little to do with being dissatisfied here but it has always been a thing I’ve done even as a child. Please don’t send me any psychological mumbo jumbo to try and help me because I’m afraid fixing things at this point and time might make an even bigger mess. Just let me dream of places far away including the reality of that eternal home which is not a dream but a present reality, I’m just not there yet. I hope you are also looking forward to that day whenever we will all be together in heaven. Now that is something to both dream about and dwell upon as a way of getting your workweek off to a great start! Amen. ….More later.