One night, when I was eight years old I had a terrible dream. I continued to have the same dream, periodically, in every detail, for the next thirty years.
When the dream begins it’s night, and my entire family is gathered at my great aunt’s house. My aunt, my mother, both my grandmothers, and my two sisters I had at the time, were all in the kitchen, preparing the evening meal. My two grandpas, who had both died years earlier, were also there, sitting in the living room, watching TV with my dad, and my great-uncle. They were all very focused on what they were watching, not saying a word.
I was there in the living room with the men. I was walking around, looking at them, but they didn’t seem to notice me at all like I wasn’t even there. I sensed something was wrong, so I slowly walked into the kitchen where the women were. They were all talking, and laughing as they prepared the food. I looked around at each of their faces for a minute. I could see by their laughter and smiles that they were all happy.
As I continued to look around, I caught a glimpse of something moving outside the window that was directly behind where my aunt was sitting at the table. As I slowly moved around to where I could get a better look, I saw an alien looking in the window. I didn’t want to scare the women, so I slowly turned and left the kitchen. I went back to the living room to tell the men about it, but they were all gone, and the TV was off.
At that moment, I heard a noise at the front door. The deadbolt started to vibrate. Then it slowly slid back and the door slowly opened. I saw a long set of gold-colored stairs coming down from the sky directly to the front door. Three aliens were slowly walking down the stairs. The one in the middle was taller than the other two. When they finally reached the threshold and stepped inside the house, they started moving around very quickly. One of them grabbed one of my sisters and placed a large band-aid on her face. Another grabbed me from behind and stuck the same kind of band-aid on my face. Then, with a quick jerk, the alien pulled the band-aid off my face, and everything went black.
That’s where the dream ended. That’s where it always ended. For more than thirty years that dream haunted me. Not every night, but quite often. I always wondered why it kept returning time and time again. I was sure it meant something, but I couldn’t figure out what. If I were like some people who believe in little, green aliens, I might have concluded that we had been abducted by them. I’ve always believed in God, and I know he has all the answers, and I talked to him about it, on several occasions, but I had never gotten an answer.
Then, one morning I woke up at the end of the dream. As I lay there in bed thinking about it, I asked God again to show me what the dream meant, and this time he did. For the first time in thirty years, it was clear. I really can’t put it into words but he revealed the whole thing all at once. Like opening a door, or pulling back a curtain. I just knew instantly. I was amazed as I recalled the dream and went through it step by step. Here’s what God revealed to me.
THE MISSING MEN
The Men didn’t notice me because they never really knew me. My Grandmother had raised me and one of my sisters from the time I was three, and she was two. My grandpa on my mother’s side had died before I was born and I only saw my grandpa on my dad’s side three times in my whole life; once when I was very young, once when he was sick and in bed before he died, and the last time was at his wake after he died. I never saw my dad enough to get to know him until I was twelve, and my uncle had only married my aunt a little while before the dream started. So, there had been no men in my life up to this point.
THE ALIENS
Right around the time I turned eight years old, my mom and dad separated again, and she came to stay with us. By that time she had another child who was five years old. My mother left her with us for a few days, and someone reported this to the Welfare office, which is now known as the Department of Human Services (DHS). Two female social workers and a male police officer came, and forcibly, took all three of us and put us into foster homes. They were the three aliens in my dream.
THE BAND-AIDS
Putting the band-aids on us, and ripping them off, represented the fact that they tried to help fix our situation, but we had to go through some pain. We were put into foster care for a while, and some bad things happened there. Our grandmother went to court and got full custody of all three of us, and she raised us to adulthood. Many years have passed since then, but we have not yet fully recovered from the whole situation. God is working on it, and fixing one thing at a time, as we allow him to. In 2 Timothy 1:7, the Bible says,
“For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7).
This is what God has done, and is doing in our lives. Restoring all that Satan took from us, and replacing the spirit of fear with the Spirit of power, love, and sound minds. What an amazing God we serve. Here’s another amazing thing. After he revealed the meaning of the dream to me that morning, I have never had it again, and I no longer have nightmares like I did before that morning. Many of the fears that I lived with for years vanished as I drew closer to the Lord. It’s amazing to see God working to heal, and restore. I pray that you will trust God, and ask him to work in your life to heal and restore whatever has been broken. He will help you with your inner struggles, whatever they may be. He will put all the pieces back into the right places, and get you back on the right road, and he’ll help you to keep moving in the right direction.
