Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Comforting Dreams

Dreams play a large part in my life. Most of them can be quite disturbing. The most prevalent are related to being late for work or back in the Army. I really don't like being late for anything. For a partially rehabilitated control freak, being in the Army was torturous. A soldier has about as much self control as Howdy Doody did.
Some dreams can be so comforting that when you awaken, you want to go back to sleep and snuggle in the comfort of the dream. Last night had such a dream.
I have always been ambivalent about God. I am Old Testament oriented. I once took a test about my religious beliefs and the result stated that I would be most comfortable as an Orthodox Jew or a Bahia or a Quaker. I never pursued the results as I was raised in my Mother's faith and feel it would be a betrayal to her to change anything.
God can be very scary to me. Not as scary as angels, the Diety's Leg Breakers, but scary in the potential retribution God can impose. I have done a lot of reading about religion. I realize that much of the Old Testament has precedents in the Mesopotamian and Canaanite religions. I have read parts of the Torah and the Koran and the religions of India and see so many similarities.
Several years ago I read that God tried to kill Moses and failed. That really set off my fear bells. There was poor Moses who was addressed by an omnipotent diety, "Take off your shoes before you come into the living room.", my Mother would have been proud. God, all powerful and incapable of erring, failed! Moses was the only witness. Moses must have wet himself. Witnesses have a habit of disappearing. Moses's mission was to go and threaten Pharoah, another risky occupation.
Last night I had a different dream. The dream simply consisted of God walking in the Garden in the morning when the dew is on the plants, the air is gentle and cool, and the birds are singing. I have done this many times and enjoy the comfort that it brings. A gentle God, walking in the Garden in the Morning, something I can identify with.
Of course this was before He stumbled on His beloved children. "I gave you one rule, not a hundred, and allowed you to do anything that you wanted, and you had to go and break that one rule!". He must have been so proud when Adam, the man he had created, manned up and said "The woman made me do it!".
So there is now comfort. No fire and brimstone and plagues and invaders, just the comfort of a gentle walk in the garden. The Thunderers and roarers and retributerors of the other religions are laid to rest. A walk in the Garden, is that what Paradise will be all about?
The morning mist, the dew on the plants, a gentle breeze, and the melodies of birds are something to look forward to. Of course, having lived my life as I have, I am more likely to be invited to a nice backyard barbeque than a walk in the Garden. That flaming sword at the entrance would be too easy to convert into a nils-kabob.
Thank You for the dream. It is comforting and comforting is all that I really need.

1 comment:

Glen Byford said...

'angels, the Diety's Leg Breakers'
- i like that.

i tend to look at religion as an interest, and as a set of principles to live your life by.

i was raised as a baptist but have been agnostic for a very long time.

my gilfriend is a hare krishna and my best friend is muslim.

i love finding out what other faiths believe and how they are similar and how they differ, i am less interested when people are told what not to do and when it produces narrow minded families.


i think my upbringing taught me well and the further i have strayed from religion more the more i now find myself coming back to it, which is perhaps what it is all really about.