When the Lord brought back the captive ones of Zion,
We were like those who dream.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter
And our tongue with joyful shouting;
Then they said among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”
The Lord has done great things for us;
We are glad.
Psalm 126:1-3 NASB
To dream, to have a vision for a future where gladness reigns and joy is established. A place, a time, a moment where laughter resides. Where the one who is downtrodden is lifted up. A safe spot where affliction is no more and where the heart can sing because of desire’s fulfillment. A sacred ground where faith becomes sight, hope reality and love the common currency. Where the presence of God is so thick that His Holy Ones would want to flee, but having nowhere to go they breath in the greatness of His glory.
We build for ourselves many dream worlds during our stay on this planet. Whether it is a dream of wealth, health or just being without encumbrance. God is, in His presence with us, the ultimate “vision.” I see Him in the wonder of a newborn child, the toddler that runs to you as best they can, calling your name as they long for you to simply lift them up. I see Him in the tears of joy carried by the sons and daughters of our sons and daughters returning from their military deployment. I hear the cry of relief and hope fulfilled in the lovers’ reunion at the airport, at the front door and entwined in their embrace. The simplest of dreams is found resolved in connection. With mouths filled with laughter and joy on their lips, returning to what is right in relationship intoxicates the soul.
Many remain out there still. Captive in their self made prison, grasping at the dreams that resolve in ashes, they struggle to make ends meet, they slave in hopeless parody of relationship and fail in their hapless endeavors to resolve the world around them. They have need, but refuse to confront it. Their captivity enslaves them to a cyclic experience of almost success through disappointment back to failure. The end result is finding themselves back to themselves without recourse.
As we stand on the edge of a new year, I pray for those I love that they may know the captive ones’ dream resolved. I pray for my nation to hold fast to the only one who can fulfill the need within the heart’s void (it is not found in bigger sheds for our stuff). I pray for the world that so desperately needs a fix for its constant lust for blood, money and power. I pray for a vision of real relationship where the Lord is at the center, a vision that sees beyond the bankruptcy of ourselves.
I know that this is beyond what many will imagine as good and right and helpful; but I would dream of gladness because the Lord “had done great things for us.” Religion will not accomplish this, only right relationship with God. May 2013 bring laughter to our mouths as we return from captivity.
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