Last night, I had a dream that I need to write down before I forget the details. Some of the details are already foggy, but the important ones are clear as day.
I was outside, near a railroad crossing, talking to some people about God, and about the Bible. My grandfather on my dad’s side, “Pa” as we called him (when he was alive), was standing nearby and overheard me talking to them, and he interjected. “That’s all a bunch of BS,” he asserted.
I turned to him and said, “Oh, really? I don’t think it’s a bunch of BS. I think it’s all very true.”
I continued on, explaining some things to him about the Bible, though I am not sure exactly what I was sharing. Before long, I could see the confidence in his unbelief fading away from his face. He was thinking about what I was saying, and it was landing, causing him to think deeper.
As I shared, a woman approached us. I am fairly certain that it was my wife in the dream, but it may have been my mom. Figures in dreams are often cloudy and unclear, and I cannot remember which of the two it was, but it’s not very important in any case. The point is that they approached, and I sent them away.
“No,” I said, “please, we’re in the middle of a conversation and I need to speak to him alone.” So they retreated, and left us to continue our conversation.
Later still, my cousin, Daniel, approached us, along with a friend. I am also uncertain who the friend was, but he was of similar age to Daniel.
In our family, we call my cousin “Little Dan,” not to be confused with “Big Dan,” his father, my uncle. My dad and Big Dan are brothers; they are Pa’s sons.
So Little Dan approached while I was talking to Pa, and he asked, “What are you guys talking about?”
I responded, “We’re talking about the Bible.”
Like Pa, he asserted, “That’s all a bunch of BS.”
I turned to him and said, “Oh, really? I don’t think its a bunch of BS. I think it’s all very true.” I specifically recall getting emotional as I explained, “The entirety of the Bible is woven into the fabric of history. You simply cannot separate the two.” As I elaborated, I started to see the confidence in his unbelief, as well as his friend’s unbelief, fading from their faces, just like I saw from Pa earlier.
In the final scene of the dream, the four of us were aboard a train, and we were approaching our stop. When we got to our stop, Daniel and his friend got up and exited the train, and I followed behind, but Pa was not getting up. I told him, “This is our stop, we need to get off.” But he did not move, almost as if he could not move. I don’t even think the train came to a full stop. It sort of just rolled through our stop. Daniel and his friend were able to exit the train safely, and I remember looking back at my grandfather one last time as I exited. He was in the back of the train, hunched over, throwing up. He was not able to exit the train. In fact, he didn’t even make an attempt to exit.
I woke up and explained the dream to my wife. As I talked through it, I felt the meaning of the dream hit me like a train. Take a look at Luke 16:19-31, below.
The Rich Man and Lazarus
19 “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20 And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21 who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, 23 and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. 24 And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ 27 And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— 28 for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ 29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’”
When people in our lives pass, it seems very natural for us as humans to amplify their good qualities and to simultaneously suppress and downplay (if not forget altogether) their vices and shortcomings. Likely, we do this because we want to believe that they are in heaven, or at the very least, that they are not in hell.
Throughout my teenage years and into adulthood, I have had a few conversations with my mom about my late grandparents. For example, we have talked about my grandma Angela, “Grammy,” who thought tithing (or giving to the church at all) was a scam, and swore she never sinned… “but, she loved her family very much.” Of course, the former two descriptors were left out of the funeral speeches. Nevertheless, we hold out hope for my grandma because, I believe, Pastor Rob, the pastor of my entire childhood and early teens, spoke to her before she died, and she may or may not have accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and savior. We pray that she did.
When it comes to Pa, even by the world’s definition, I have never heard a whole lot of good. He was not nice to my grandma (his wife), he was not nice to my mom, he was racist… He was diabetic, and he refused to listen to his doctors about how to manage his diabetes, his diet, and his weight. He remained very stubborn, unhealthy, and overweight until he died in his mid 60s. Even so, the worldly among us mindlessly assure each other that “he is in a better place.” My mom was never so sure.
I believe the Lord gave a clear answer to that question through my dream last night. My grandpa never “got off the train,” nor did he even make an attempt to. My cousin and the unknown friend, on the other hand, still have time. If you’re reading this, and you haven’t come to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior yet, you also still have time. Get off the train! Maybe you were the friend…
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