the dream

The following is a dream I had last night.

Dream Saturday 25th July 2009 Richard Snook
Kerry and I were invited to stay with a family for Christmas. The family was a big family but they lived in a large ranch style house with many rooms and lavishly decorated.
When we arrived we were shown into a master bedroom with a huge king sized bed and other furniture, it was palatial and classy, we felt so honored and blessed to be treated this way.
We settled in and began to explore the house; there was a large pool, huge oak kitchen, lounges and family rooms, plenty for such a large family. All around us the family was making preparations, decorating, wrapping presents cleaning and cooking, everyone was busy and singing and happy as they worked all the time making us feel so welcome.
Guests began to arrive, aunty so and so…cousins and uncles we were like doormen as we held open the big heavy doors and shook their hands and hugged them as they arrived.
Presently we made our way to the lounge room where many of the guests had gathered enjoying the atmosphere of friendship and the banter of re-acquainted friends.
In a moment Cameron and some guys emerged carrying some equipment and said would we mind making room for the punk band to set up, surprisingly (to me) everyone cheered and made room, shifting chairs and tables to clear the way, there was a buzz of excitement that filled the air, as this happened the room began to grow and the lounge room became an auditorium, with rows of chairs and a large stage with a band setting up and people taking their places. Bailey and Hudson were getting restless so we left Maddison & Jacob with Julian and Damian, and went back to the rest of the house.
We made our way to a lounge room towards the front of the house and went in, there were a bunch of people in afro clown wigs, talking with the children playing games and reading books. A kind lady came up and asked the boys to help her fix some Lego blocks, at once they felt at home and at ease and disappeared into what had now become a crowd of curly wigs.
We went out and back through the kitchen, but it had changed, it was now a bar or café, and behind the counter was Dave Williams like Tom Cruise or Bryan Brown in cocktail, flipping the bottles and cups and entertaining the crowd and keeping the drinks filled and people fed.
We went to our room to freshen up, and there was a young couple there, they said the owner insisted they should come spend some time with us. We felt a bit affronted after all this had been our room and we didn’t have a mind to share it. we chatted to them and realized in talking that the room wasn’t ours, it belonged to the owner and he’d been gracious to share it with us, so we opened our hearts and invited them to share it with us. As we did this the roof was ripped away and the walls all disappeared, we could see the grassy undulating lawn, the pool and the garden right down to the road. Suddenly people started coming down the stairs into “our” room, we felt invaded but then we realized they were setting up beds on the ground around us, there were old and young and all in between, I distinctly saw a bus load of Elderly citizens quietly come in awkwardly traversing the stairs and then proceed to help one another set up beds and get comfortable.
I remember feeling at first invaded and uncomfortable, but I remembered the love which we had experienced and the way in which the family had welcomed us. Their acceptance and love kept on flowing all that day even though they were busy. I felt ashamed that I had been selfish and thought it was all for me…I was overwhelmed with love for these new guests that now lay on the floor of “my” room…My hosts room. My heart had changed and now I longed to share the love I’d found with these people, for them to know the acceptance and grace I’d found… to know that here is peace, is love is joy, is safety and security……then I woke up.
On reflection: I feel God invites us into His family, into his home, into His place of abundance. And he lavishes this abundance upon us…He doesn’t make us contribute, he just accepts and loves us. He doesn’t force us to sacrifice or share…. He assumes it really…… it is so much a part of who He is, because after all “God is Love”……He just keeps on being God and eventually we get it! We Get His heart of Love….. a love of people…. of family….. of sharing. Then we choose His heart over ours….and the roof comes off! Then the world comes in, where it was always meant to be