Pink Lemonade and Other Weird Things

Last night I dreamed about my parents.  It’s funny how some dreams are so vivid that they remain in your waking moments, and others seem to disappear but stay right on the edge of your mind and try as you might you cannot grasp them…sort of like that word that sits on the tip of your tongue but refuses to come out of your mouth.  Last night’s dream was vivid.

Details I remember…I was a worship leader in a former church of my father.  It was the first Sunday for me to attempt to lead the service.  I was NOT the preacher…but I did everything else.  It was a wonderful service…a church-in-the-wildwood sort of church with uninhibited worship.  As I stood to begin the service, I could see my father’s outline through the frosted window on the door at the back of the sanctuary.  I smiled and let the people know that he and mom were coming in.  Everyone was thrilled to see them, but no one was more thrilled than I was.  As I lead music through the service, Dad nodded in agreement and smiled as if he couldn’t be more proud of me.  Mom kept holding her finger up and mouthing directions to me (smile) to make sure I didn’t skip an important part … like the offering or the announcements.  The church voted at the end of the service and said they wanted me to stay as their worship leader.  The whole thing was overwhelming in the dream…I remember shaking in my shoes as I stood behind the pulpit feeling ill-equipped for the task but deciding this was an opportunity to love the Lord and I wasn’t going to miss it.  Mom and Dad quietly headed home afterwards and said they’d see me at the house.  After I visited with everyone I walked out of the church and down the road in front of the church.  I got to a small town and stood at the intersection of two busy roads and realized I didn’t have a clue where my parents lived…or how to get in touch with them.  I ran back to the church crying because I didn’t know how to find them.  One of the deacons showed up and realized what was going on and called my parents.  Shortly mom drove up in the car and I walked out the door to get in the car with her…but I never saw where they lived.  The dream now turned into nighttime and I was walking a dog…back to the church.  The deacon was there checking on his daughter who lived in the church.  This part is so clear…and so confusing.  His daughter was scared because she always left one light on in the building and tonight as she’d walked through the building to prepare to go to bed she’d found a second light on.  I was out front with the dog as the deacon shared this with me and we turned to see a body silhouetted against a window in a Sunday School room.  We headed to the room and found a mother settling her three children in to sleep.  She refused to leave…she said the only safe place she could find for her children was in the church.  So the deacon and I decided she should stay.  We went outside and the dog was running off.  The deacon had some kind of canister in his hand…like a helium or propane canister.  He tried to open a nozzle and it broke and started making some sort of hissing sound.  He threw it as far away as he could and moments later it exploded into flames.  Another machine nearby started spewing black smoke and he told me to run and get as far away as possible because the smoke was toxic.  I was running when I woke up.

It was all so clear…I didn’t feel like I’d rested at all.  I’ve been having trouble sleeping…I hadn’t fallen asleep till sometime after 4:30 a.m.  It was now 6:30 a.m.  I murmured to Dan that I’d had dreamed about my parents.  He said, “I’m sorry” and I told him that it was okay.  It was a good dream.  Dan got up shortly afterwards to take care of Holden and get him to school.  I fell back to sleep and dreamed again.

I was in West Monroe, Louisiana…riding a bicycle (gasp).  I rode down Thomas Road trying to decide what I wanted to eat (for those who don’t know, this road must have 20-30 restaurants along the sides…we referred to it as Restaurant Lane long ago).  I decided to stop at a chicken restaurant just across the interstate.  It had a couple of tables inside but most folks ate outside at the picnic tables.  I ordered some chicken pot pie, steak fries and a pink lemonade (yes, I dream in color…and yes, this dream was also vivid).  I chose a picnic table outside, but the skies started to darken so I moved inside to a corner table.  The Odd Couple (Tony Randall and Jack Klugman) were sitting at the table next to me.  I commented to them that I was a fan and asked Tony Randall if he had a favorite Broadway tune he’d recorded because I wanted to make it my ring tone on my cell phone (yes, I know this is totally bizarre…but I could not make this stuff up).  He told me a song that was his favorite and mentioned that it had over 150 views on YouTube.  Of course it wasn’t available, so I called the operator to ask if they had any Tony Randall songs available for ringtones.  They did not.  The next thing I remember is LeeAnne and Holden coming in the door to eat.  I begged LeeAnne to give me a ride to my parents’ home because it was now pouring outside…and I’m talking Louisiana-hurricane-style-instant-flooding pouring.  LeeAnne said she could not give me a ride because Holden needed to get home for a nap…and she left.  The last thing I remember is calling my mom who was not happy that she was going to have to get out in the storm to come and get me.

I also remember somewhere in this dream, as I traveled down Thomas Road, that I stopped at a gas station (remember - I’m on a bicycle…have no idea why I stopped here).  I parked my bike and crossed the street and went into a hospital to check on someone…they’d already been released.  I came back out of the hospital and crossed back to the gas station.  I had noticed going in and coming out that there was a small blue car that kept going around the block and someone was sitting in the back seat with their arm resting up in the window…and they were wearing a yellow glove (the kind you wear to wash dishes).  The car frightened me.  Nothing came of this car in my dream…but I can remember my heart racing and thinking someone was going to get hurt by the people in this car.

It was time to get out of bed…I don’t like it when my dreams are this vivid.  I remember the pink of the lemonade…the yellow glove…the dark, ominous clouds that literally rolled in…the music in the church… and the total feeling of helplessness because I didn’t know where my parents were.  I’ve pondered this morning if this dream isn’t just a manifestation of my true feelings…I know my parents are together…I know they are okay…I know they have a home…but I don’t get to be with them.  I’m not a person to predict what dreams mean, but I was comforted by this dream and the thought that one day my mom will show up to take me home…when it’s time.  I made a decision as the new year started that I was going to let my mourning for the past rest and start anticipating the day that we’ll be together again.  I have a trip coming up in a couple of weeks and the excitement is building as I look forward to getting together with old friends.  We’re going to be in a cabin/chalet in the Rockie Mountains outside of Boulder, Colorado.  This reunion is going to be a blessing.  And that’s what it will be like when I go to heaven someday.  There will be a reunion with loved ones.  We’ll be up higher than I’ve ever been before.  It will be beautiful.  And best of all, I’ll be in the Presence of my Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.  I look forward to that day.  I don’t dread death as many do…I see death as birth into the perfect life that God intended for us from the beginning.  I look forward to walking in His gardens with Him as he walked with Adam and Eve before their fellowship with Him was broken.  I look forward to sitting at the feet of Jesus and hearing His voice.  And I look forward to choir practice! 

Weird dreams or not, I know what lies ahead.  It is not all mystery.  But I must say that my dreams worry me sometimes!