Dreams of the World

Dreams are really important to me.  It lets me know what I am really afraid of.  It lets me know how I really view people.  I can't lie to myself when I am asleep.  Sometimes when I dream, I remember a phrase or a scene that came while I was sleeping.

Last night I remember someone saying in a dream that if I made Korea my life.  If I gave my all.  This place, this world, would be a smaller place.  The idea that things are not so different or far apart was amusing.

Then today I went to town.  I was walking down the sidewalk and the sun was shining clearer and brighter than it has in a long time.  I felt at home among the tall buildings.  The signs, multitudes of people, and colors were not strange or overwhelming.  In fact it didn't feel like a lot of people at all.  I looked down the street and saw the mountains.  They didn't seem so far away.  I rode on the bus with friendly people.  Suddenly Daegu doesn't seem like a metropolis anymore.  Places don't seem so far away.  The culture does not seem so alien.

Sitting there and feeling that everything was good, I remembered that phrase, "The world would be a smaller place."  I realized that this in fact was true.  The world is a lot smaller that it had seemed.  At least as it had seemed when I first heard I was coming to Korea.  When I first arrived.  When I first missed home and those I care about.  No one and no place seems so far away, at least at this moment.  Today.

This is when I realized that God was working in me.  Building me up and helping me to grow.

I know the analogy of God being a potter who breaks us so that He can make us better is very common.  However, I want to propose a new analogy.  God is a gardener, who plants a perfect seed.  This seed sprouts and starts to grow.  Harsh weather comes along and tried to drown the small seedling.  Animals come along and step over the seedling.  However the Gardner is still there, protecting and encouraging the seedling to grow.  Soon the seedling is a young tree, beautiful and full of promise.  It is possible strong winds may twist or warp the young tree.  Bugs and other harmful things try to infect and disfigure us.  However the Gardner is there to gently encourage and nourish the tree until its roots are deep and its trunk is strong.  Then when we are ready, He shows us what miracles He can work through us.  And while we do His will, He continues to help us grow yet even more.  Till not even the California Redwoods tower above us.

I prefer this analogy, of a gentle and caring God who wants the best for us and is there every step of the way to show us how to keep going on no matter what the Devil throws in our path.