Nightmare

Dreams are so much a part of us and yet not a part of us. I've often wondered about dreams. What do they mean, all those dreams that flash by so quickly only to pass from memory as though they were never there. Today I had a dream which did not pass, will never pass its scenes vividly stamped on my mind, its words forever written on my heart. This dream bought death Mine. Oh, the joy! My soul freed from its prison this body in which it lives. Free at last from the chains holding it to earth. Free to soar in worlds it could not reach before. Free to see such beauty as these words cannot express to hear the sound of music written by the Lord himself. With joy, I run toward that for which my soul has yearned. But wait! A penance due? A short delay, I'm told. First there's something I must see someone who wants to say a word before I go an old friend or two. But where are we going? The light is fading I cannot hear the music. How awful, that other sound closer now, and louder. Is it the sound of screaming can that be human voice? My soul shrinks from this horror and tries in vain to flee but somehow, something stronger compels me to stay. The darkness is crushing heated air fills my lungs. The robe I'm wearing turns to ashes burning stones are everywhere. All around me, there is fire but no light! Where can they be in Hell, my friends? Oh, wake me from this dream it cannot be! A face before me now the girl next door her finger pointing right at me. "I saw you almost every day you never once told me this place was here." I reach out to her but she is gone. Another face I recognize a boy I once knew. "I talked to you about the raw deal life had handed me. You could have warned me of the one who is the greatest swindler of them all." The mailman's face contorted with pain. "You gave me water to quench my thirst could you give just a drop now?" I see the neighbor whose son was killed. "You talked to me about death but did not tell me how to live." The needy one what was her name? She stands before me now. "You were kind and gave me food for my body my soul was starving you must have known." A friend from church how can this be? Surely, there's some mistake. what is he saying? "I shared with you my doubt you did not pray with me I was searching you turned it aside lightly." Many other persons whose names I no longer know but whose faces are forever mine. These I may not meet again but now, my nightmare o'er I'll not pass blithely by that one who stops to say hello but look at each as God's own and know he loves them and care enough to let him speak through me.