Dare To Dream

Dare to Dream

   “Somewhere…over the rainbow, there’s a land that I heard of once in a lullaby…

  -If happy little bluebirds fly, why, then oh, why can’t I?”

   My girls have been singing this on repeat the last while. Maybe it’s because I have too. We heard it first together at Marita and baby Sawyer’s funeral. After her funeral, I went out to hoe in my garden and the corn leaves rustled as the wind blew and my oldest girl came to tell me she’d prayed and she felt like God had saved her. Something about listening to the funeral had broken through whatever small defences she had and she’d given her life to Jesus.

    She left me after we visited a bit, and I leaned on my hoe as the wind whispered through my garden plants and it felt like Heaven touched my soul. I texted Mr. Jay, Marita’s dad, and he replied.

   “I’m outside too, on the porch swing,” he said. “And I’m feeling the same breeze blow through here.”

   That little touch of Heaven, that whisper from Jesus that we are loved. You are loved. I am loved. It is a breeze from the land over the rainbow. It’s where all the dreams that you dared to dream really do come true.

   The bluebirds fly away up there. We wish them to return but we don't. Mr. Jay flew away. They sang Over The Rainbow at his life memorial. My friend Cindy flew away with her little baby girl just recently and they sang it again. One day, more of us will fly away, away to Glory. The song will always mean new birth to me, starting a new wonderful amazing life beyond what we've ever dared to dream.

   I believe in this Dream of a Heaven because I have felt it over and over. That Feeling supersedes teaching, education, and any prejudices I can tell myself. Doctrinal issues, crisis of faith, fights with spirits, temptations, fears, and differences of lifestyles all fade when the rainbow shines and the breeze whispers and another bluebird flies away. We pause and cry and feel the glorious breeze from a Far Away Country. I do not know the facts of what happens when a person dies. Their body gets buried and physical ends but I feel that Something almost magical occurs. Something only God can make happen through a sacrifice by Jesus. It’s a Miracle and because I feel, I believe in life after death. The Most Glorious Life if that's what a person has dreamed of. C.S. Lewis says the nonbeliever doesn't even want to go to Heaven and talks of the man who went to Heaven and while others reveled in the feeling of walking on lush grass, the non-believer felt as if he was walking on sharp spikes. I might be mixing up his meaning. But even if some of my beliefs aren't true or a little mixed up, my dreams are a whole lot better than living in a dungeon of hopelessness.

   I look forward to that glorious time when labels aren’t being pinned on people and cool shoulders being turned at others. A land where everyone is equal, no matter what they drive or how they dress or what their last name is. Cancel culture turns into praising our Saviour Who makes the impossible happen.  Forgiveness is offered and grace is free and God is Big and the ONLY focus of small men’s lives is on Him because only God reigns in Heaven. Oh, somewhere there’s a place of peace within families where no one is in a defending or offending position.   “If happy little bluebirds fly, why then, oh, why can’t I?”

Maybe I'm writing like this because I got sick with ear infection and I know there's a lot of fun outdoor work I'd love to be doing instead. Or maybe I'm writing it because the breeze is blowing and even when my life is a mess, I feel loved,

  There is One Father and He sees

and cares. He sets the Rainbows, He calls the bluebirds, He places good dreams within men’s hearts. He provides a Path beneath the skies no matter what the weather is. The Breeze from Heaven cools our fevered brows and it also carries scents of the growing living things from a far away Paradise. I am filled with a longing… Somewhere Over The Rainbow.