sometimes winter is beautiful... and a strange dream

This is just out of town... I went out with John to take some pictures. I love how at sunset even snow can look warm. I guess the grass peeking through helps too.

So I had this strange dream the other night... it's really hard to explain, but it was strange not just because of the content of the dream, but because unlike most of my dreams I had no idea what was about to happen, in that way it felt very real. I was sitting in the living room with my family. It was summer and our dining room window was open, all of a sudden we hear this ruckus outside. There was a guy... who I assumed was drunk yelling and we could hear what sounded like bottles breaking. He was yelling "REALLY WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL... HE WAS JUST THE BASTARD SON OF A CARPENTER AND A PROSTITUTE. YOU CALL HIM A SAVIOUR HE COULDN'T SAVE HIMSELF!" I felt so sad for this guy. I felt sad that he was so deluded. I felt sad that he bought into the lies that have, truthfully, been hanging around since the romans and pharisee's started spouting them just after the resurrection. He kept yelling and I can't even bring myself to write what he said... (There is almost never any swearing or bad language in my dreams no matter what was happening - so I guess that set this dream apart too.) My curiousity got the best of me, as it usually does... and I went to the window to see who it was. I was absolutely shocked to discover that it wasn't just one man... There was a group of people bashing out the windows of our cars with bats and rocks. The man was there yelling and the others grinning and nodding assent to what he said as they kept breaking windows. My heart started beating so fast... I thought I wasn't scared but my body was saying otherwise. I felt I really had to say something, proclaim truth in the midst of the lies. I stood at the window looking, some of them glancing at me and laughing, shaking their heads. I started telling the leader that he was wrong.. that not only had Jesus in that one radical act saved not just himself, or the jews or the others of that day, but he had saved me. That he is in fact the legitimate heir of the King of Kings, Majestic in Holiness, working wonders... and all sorts of things he had done and names He was given came tumbling out. Even as I spoke I knew they would come after me next. I felt bad for my family, that I hadn't given them a chance to get away... I felt sad that I had pushed them into having to take a stand for Christ right then and there. But in the back of my mind I knew it was good and right, that God had brought this test to us, not just me. It was time for us to stand up and bear witness to the truth. I woke up as I was still speaking to them and watching them grow in fury... My heart was beating so hard, and I thought - I can't forget this dream - even if I don't understand it right now in full, it felt like there was something important in it. Even stranger, when I fell back to sleep, the next dream that I had ended with me telling my sister Christina about this dream... somehow it's important.