IT’S NOT US!
The world of dreams is an utterly convincing (while we are in it) illusion, an imperfect and often surrealistic reflection of our waking reality. We move through invented scenes, interact with invented people, or characters from our waking lives. We do things, sometimes good, sometimes bad, and suffer no consequences for them after we wake up. We accept these distortions when we are in the dream because we exist there under the Law of Dreaming. While we are under this Law, we think, rarely, if ever, of where we really are. And where is that? Of course! We are usually snug in our beds. When we awaken, we say “Oh, it was only a dream!” and we get on with our lives, under the Law of Waking. We think, if we think about it at all, that we now know where we are – in the here and now – but I cannot help but wonder if “where we really are” is yet another place, still unknown to us.
At some point, we must ask who and what we are. A good start is to know the relationship between body, soul, and spirit. Centuries ago, early anatomists dissected cadavers, looking for the “seat of the soul.” They failed. If you read the story of the creation of Adam/Man in Genesis, and really understand it, you will know that man was not given a soul, but BECAME a living soul when the Breath of Life was breathed into a yet-to-live body. Naturally, by the time the dissectors got their hands on the corpse, the soul was non-existent, and the breath/spirit was long gone – they were left with only the dead body. More recently, the theory was concocted that consciousness is a product of chemical reactions in the brain. As far as I know, this theory has failed, as has the one which postulated that consciousness is produced by electrical activity in the brain. What are we left with, then? Are we looking for something ephemeral or even ineffable? There is a school of thought which speculates that the brain is merely a transducer for the Mind, and that implies that our minds may well be in another place, but the nature of that place we have no knowledge of, being as we are, under the Law of Waking. Be aware that I am Philosophizing, not Scientificating here…
I have come to believe that when we move on into the “far country,” or rather, step beyond the veil between this life and the next, we will awaken and say, “Oh, that too, was just a dream!”
If you’ve ever watched a DVD movie with Special Features, you have probably seen those “Behind the Scenes” features. In them, we get to see the actors off-camera, and out of character. We see, to our surprise if we have been taken in by their on-screen persona, an actor transition from a good or bad person to his/her true persona when the scene is over and the camera is off. We can see the hero and villain laughing together at some joke, or a complete (apparent) personality change. We then realise that, yes, they’re actors, and the characters are not them.
In the same way, when we pass beyond the veil, will we (in a sense) too go off-script and off-camera, as our scene in the Great Drama ends? Will we then not revert to our true nature? Paul wrote that we do not know WHAT we will be, just as in a dream, we forget all about our waking life. A person is not punished for what happens in a dream, in a drama, in make-believe, and maybe not in this life, if as I have wondered, this life is little more than a lucid dream. Reality is on the other side of the veil.
Let’s picture God as a Potter, as the Bible also does. Ask yourself if the Potter is proud of His clay, or just the finished pot? If the clay, so to speak, is fine in texture, smooth, has no grit, and molds well in His hands, I think He must like/love the clay as He likes/loves the finished pot. Maybe He takes the “B” clay, and makes pots for a more humble use. It may not be so easy to mold, but it is still useful. It is the Potter’s job to dig clay out the ground, prepare it for use, mold it, dry it, glaze it, fire it, and then sell the finished pots. I recall a vision I once had of potsherds scattered across a vast plain, and they represented people, and realize that it’s not our fault that we’re all broken - it just is. When the very plain potsherd that represented me was pointed out, I felt no sense of blame for being there or being broken – it just was. I don’t think we are to blame for our condition of brokenness, sinners that we are - only if we revel in it. I think it’s all part of God’s plan.
I hope I’m not sounding too obvious at this point, with any readers saying to themselves, “Yeah, Laz, blahdey blah. Yada, Yada, Yada.”
What I am thinking is this: I have been reading a book about the Exodus, so that has been on my mind. In my mind’s eye, I saw the Sinai area laid out before me, and I thought about the Israelites escaping Egypt and reaching the Mountain of God, which was (and is) in Midian, the same place where Moses met the Burning Bush, at the “backside of the desert.” God’s Plan was for them to go on into Canaan very soon after He formally made them His people, but they rebelled in various ways, and refused to believe the good news of the good land of Canaan. The basic problem was that they were carnal, and since Canaan symbolized the New Earth, Paradise, Heaven, the life to come, and since carnal flesh can not inherit or enter such a place, God amended His Plan. The Israelites had to wait the probationary forty years to enter, until all the carnal generation had died off, and a new spiritual generation came to maturity. When that happened, they marched north, and crossed the Jordan into Canaan. Well, not all, as some stayed behind in Gilead, as it was nice enough. Given the symbolism, this may mean that some will not fully enter the Heavenly realms in the next life. I see the Jordan crossing as the passage from this life to the next, with the Ark (Christ?) making the passage possible. A new life opened to them, and the old life of life in the wilderness, or in Egypt, became a memory or a dream.
What does it mean? Just as God hardened the heart of Pharaoh, He made one generation in the Exodus to symbolize carnality, and the next to symbolize spirituality. It was all a grand illustration of life, death, salvation, redemption, and the life to come. The Israelites participated, but in a sense, they were like brush strokes in a great painting. It seems to me that they were not really at fault, as God used them to make up a grand teaching tool, an instruction for the ages. If the generation leaving Egypt had been confident and faithful and obedient, the teaching tool might not have taught so well. It was not by their will or choice, but by God’s Will and Plan, it seems to me, so it was not their fault. The lesson is still posted, but finished. We have the advantage today of learning the easy way, and maybe that is why God “winked” at some things in the times BC, but now in times AD, He expects us to apply our lessons. Remember, people paid with their lives so that we could have these lessons today. We need to do better than they did, but the Will and the Plan is still in place, and we remain details in a grand Plan. We see ourselves as important, but it’s a matter of perspective, and from God’s end, I think He knows that it is Himself running things, and it’s not us. If true, punishment and retribution tend to be excluded, and we can see correction instead of punishment, and mercy instead of retribution. The Potter is pleased with the clay, after all.
I buy my clay ready made and I’m not always as satisfied, but if it’s “short” I can still make it into small pieces and more structurally strong shapes, and people like them because they’re pretty and useful (in a small way) and inexpensive. I do think that at least to some extent we can choose how to respond to His hands, as we are not inanimate but animate clay. Not ALL Israel was “short.” There were Joshua and Caleb and perhaps others as well, though others aren’t mentioned.