“The Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream at night.” How many people in today’s world actually pay attention to their dreams? It seems foolish to believe in the mind’s wanderings at night, after all, they are usually just scenes that play out briefly and then are gone like a puff of smoke. When you wake up, you can try to chase the puff of smoke, but it will disintegrate before you can catch it. And yet, Solomon along with many other people in the bible had an experience of God in their dreams.
Joseph in the Old Testament, along with Saint Joseph in the New Testament, both experienced legitimate dreams from God. This is kind of a little side note, because the last verse in the gospel today speaks of the new and the old as part of the kingdom of heaven:
“Then every scribe who has been instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who rings from his storeroom both the new and the old.”
Back to the subject of dreams though … how do you tell when a dream is from God, or just an ordinary dream?
There are two different kinds of dreams that can indicate the actual presence of the supernatural:
The first one is nightmares. This can be God’s way of trying to get you to pay attention to something important that you are not currently paying attention to. Many people find it helpful to write down the images in the nightmare for further reflection and to pray about. The images are something that you alone relate to, and their meaning will be uniquely yours. A flower means different things to different people for an example.
The second type of dream that can be an indication that God, Jesus, an angel, or the Holy Spirit is truly present, is it’s enduring meaning. If you can’t shake the dream the rest of the day, this is an indication that you should pay attention to it. If the dream is still clear in your memory a month, year, or many years later, this is also a clear indicator that it really was from God. These kind of dreams are usually an act of grace, and can never be sought under your own steam. They impart knowledge, are a sign of God’s supernatural presence in your life, instructions in something that He asks you to do, and sometimes they even tell the future. Joseph in the Old Testament interpreted the Pharaoh’s dream about the fat and skinny cows very accurately, for an example. Seven years of plentiful harvests and seven years of famine. We shouldn’t easily dismiss the reality of God’s presence in our dreams.
God answers prayers through dreams sometimes. King Solomon obviously prayed about his inability to govern God’s people well. Because he asked for wisdom, and not for things for himself, God answered his prayer. This is a very important lesson in the spiritual life. God loves to answer prayers that do not directly benefit ourselves, but rather benefit either Himself or other people. Not to say that He doesn’t answer our prayers for ourselves, but He is great deal more likely to answer those that we do not personally benefit from.
Jesus told us in the gospel that the kingdom of heaven is like a buried treasure or the finest pearl. That people are like the different things caught in a fishing net. There are all kinds of things that get drug up in fishing nets. Fish that are not edible. Fish that are too small. Sea urchins, starfish, dead limbs, coral, trash, etc. but there are also very delectable treasures in the sea. Like king crab, lobster, shrimp, and many delicious kinds of fish. It sounds like a wonderful meal, to have an assortment of different foods on a buffet! But seriously, the things that are not good and life giving, do not belong on the dinner plate. But, each good, Christian person is unique in their own way and will make heaven a joyful place that will never be boring, because of our own individual personalities.
The kingdom of God is the only thing worth investing your whole life in. Your faith, family, and friendships will live on, but the material things of this world will one day burn up at the end of the age. God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Mary, your family and friends, and your faith community will be all you have then, but that will be more than enough.
