Speaking in the Light – 6-14-2006

I was reading a story the other day about a father who while he was getting ready for work one morning, accidentally woke up his four-year-old daughter in the process. After the unwelcome wake up call, this little girl who is normally one of the happiest kids on the planet had nothing but a giant frown for her Dad.
He proceeded to ask her, “Honey, what’s wrong?” “Oh, Daddy,” she sobbed, “you made my dreams go away.” Her father tried not to laugh, but he was curious to learn more so he queried, “Sweetie, what do you mean?” With that she gave her exasperated explanation: “I was having the greatest dream. It was beautiful, and then you had to go and make that noise and took my dream away. I want my dream back.”
During a month that we recognize Father’s Day, is there a bigger challenge for us earthly fathers than for us to look for specific ways that we may be conduits of our children’s dreams and not the clogs or the cause that good dreams die?
I think it is the cry of every individual’s heart that has ever been rudely awakened from a dream by the mundane reality of everyday life to somehow find a way to get back to the place where the magic is restored and wishing and hoping is not looked down upon but actually encouraged.
If a dream really is a wish the heart makes then an earthly Dad is the Heavenly Father’s gift to all of us packaged in human skin as one concrete way that awesome dreams can still come true.
Have you ever let go of your dreams prematurely? Have you dismissed something that still stirs your heart as silly and unrealistic? Have you in the name of being practical actually become just pessimistic? Have you given up looking forward to times full of excitement and anticipation and joy and real life?
If you have, then June may just be the season to ask for your dreams back and even if your earthly father was more a deterrent than dedicated, there is a God who longs to remind you that the dawning of dreams was a specific time period that He orchestrated into the symphony of your soul. And you won’t be complete until you are singing the lyrics and melody of that dream once again.
As earthly dads, we may be lacking the ability to accomplish such a supernatural task as restoring our four-year-olds to their nocturnal visions. But we can be a tool of the Heavenly Papa to release someone from their prison of frustration where they have forgotten that where there is no dreaming- people perish. So why not use this month to help our children, our spouses, our friends tackle those annoying “if only” obstacles that keep raining on the parades that our loved ones long to march in? I challenge all of us fathers to be willing to be instruments of God in helping all of His children find a way back to practically rediscovering and redeeming their childlike faith.
If Easter was the resurrection of Jesus to new life, then perhaps Father’s Day may be a time when dreams that once were dead, may now be summoned to storm out of the tombs, ready to come alive and rather than we men preempting the dreams of our children, we will be the coaches of our dreamers to produce new and wonderful experiences that would be an awful shame to miss, unless we choose to open our eyes.
Here is to the dreamers and to the Dads out there who are committed to helping make dreams come true, and to our God who can out dream us all. Happy Father’s Day!
Pastor Rudy invites you to spend Father’s Day with your Heavenly Father by coming to one of our three Celebration Services at The Lighthouse Church. We meet Saturday nights at 6 p.m. at the Annex 1248 Rt. 9 and Sundays at 9 and 10:30 a.m. at Elementary School No.2 in Court House. Call 465-6690 for more details and directions.