/a Dream—or, Maybe Not

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From dreamless sleep, I startled into full consciousness, Looking down at the quilted form of my body. “So I’m dead,” I thought. The slow rise and fall of the covering quilt belied my conclusion.

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A rich baritone chuckle sounded from everywhere and nowhere. My senses trembled as if seated on a massive bass speaker. I turned, unsure what to expect. I saw nothing.

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A warm hand took mine. “Come, dance with Me.” We lifted through the ceiling, the roof, high above the town’s weary lights. All grew smaller until my town was but a tiny dot of light on a rough map of the United States. From the Mississippi to the Atlantic, lights spangled the night. To the west, vast dark spaces reigned with bright cities scattered randomly in the dark. On the west coast, major cities, San Diego/Los Angeles, the Bay area, Portland, Seattle, were strung like pearls along the edge of the sea.

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“Pretty, yes?” came a surround-sound voice.

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“Breathtaking, trite though that may sound.” I do not know why I was not terrified. Arms encircled me, held me in a warm embrace.

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“Let’s dance,” said the voice.

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Dance we did. Sometimes dizzyingly fast, sometimes upside down, sometimes a slow gentle waltz. We danced to His melody, whispered and sung by turns as if He were the entire orchestra, chorus, and soloist.

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The earth faded to a small blue blot suspended in ink. We plunged into the sun. I felt its warmth as if on earth, standing in a sunny garden. , Hurtling out its far side, we circled Venus, swept past Mars, dove through the rings of Saturn paused to take in the sight of Jupiter’s moons. Then I was above our galaxy, seeing, for the first time by any human, its spiral shape. .

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“let me show you something even more spectacular,” He said.

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WE paused, suspended in the void. He turned me toward a red giant star. I watched as it swelled, engulfing its planets, absorbing them into itself. It exploded. I ducked and pulled away.

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“Fear not.”

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I felt the stream of subatomic particles ruffle my hair and tickle my innards. I felt none the worse for the experience. With its outer shell moving at near-light speed into the void, its core shrank to the size of our sun. It continued its collapse which normally would take thousands of years, into a neutron star. It continued to shrink until a single teaspoon of its material weighed millions of tons. Finally, it collapsed into a black hole. Its gravity so strong, even photons of light could not escape. It drew particles, stars and any other matter, within millions of light years, into itself.

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“Fun, huh?” came the voice.

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“That was all in compressed time, I take it?”

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“Yes indeed, but let’s move on. We’ve just begun.”

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He danced me to a pair of neighboring galaxies. Stars streamed from one galaxy to the other.

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“It’s cannibalizing its neighbor!” I said.

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“Yes. That is so.”

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“Because of Adam and Eve?”

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“驰别蝉.”

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“But I thought you set them up, so to speak. I mean, tell young kids not to do something and that is the very thing they will do. Then you went and created that snake that monstrous beguiling dragon to purposely seduce them.”

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“that I did.”

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“then how can you blame them, and us?”

“There is purpose behind all that I do, including that monstrous seducer, the serpent of Eden.”

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It still doesn’t seem fair.”

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“Perhaps not, from your perspective. But from mine, it is all a part of the interweaving of each person’s life and actions. Believe me, I experience more of the pain of humanity than any you could ever experience in a million lifetimes.”

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“闯别蝉耻蝉.”

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“Yes, exactly.”

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We left the boundaries of the universe, all that I knew of reality. It was dark, a night of palpable black.

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“Where am I?” I asked.

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You are within me, in the me that is all that there is. You are experiencing the reality of me that David and Paul spoke of. ‘If you flee to the uttermost parts of the earth, behold, I AM there.’ And ‘In me you live and move and have your being.’ Do you feel me flowing through you as we dance?”

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“Now that you mention it, I do.” The sensation of movement stopped. I looked around. It was as if I were blind. No light, not even the glimmer of the universe I left behind. Like a switch being thrown, light flooded my being. More than vision, more than the light of the sun. all my senses. Like glorious music, extraordinary taste, scent that no perfumer could concoct. Rivers of delight flowed from nerve ending to my brain and back again. I still saw nothing in the intense light..

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As if donning a new pair of glasses, everything suddenly snapped into focus and I saw. Millions, probably billions, of beings like me, with heads, arms, legs and torso, surrounding me. Though they crowded inn, packed like sardines, I could see through them, to perimeter of the mass. In the center, a couple stood, head and shoulders above the rest. They wept tears. They held out their hands, reaching to pull others to themselves. Few responded.

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Most of the billions were soft, spongy. Encountering another person, they briefly molded themselves into a corresponding form to the one encountered. Parting, they became an amorphous shape again. Another group threw chains over those who were near them. Their words exploded from their mouths clothed in black. Each enchained being was forced to serve the one who held the chains.

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At invisible tables, many sat counting something, also invisible. They paused, now and again, to write with invisible pens on invisible paper. Sometimes they smiled, occasionally laughed in delight, sometimes frowned in anger or disgust. They clustered near one another, groups of mostly men, passing invisible objects between them, trying to find an advantage, to accumulate more of these non-existent objects.

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Some of those in the three-dimensional realm of humanity, were hard and wore sharp spikes. They forced their way through the crowd, stabbing and slashing their way to some unknown destination. Their progress was marked by howls of pain and curses. Occasionally, someone died when a spike penetrated too deeply. The spike carriers moved on as if nothing untoward happened.

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Some attempted to elevate themselves above the throng, though this was difficult in three-dimensional space. They mounted unseen stairs, held see-through documents before them and read very persuasive words to those around them. Their words were grey, part true and part false. Sometimes they spoke of political power, sometimes of scientific achievements, sometimes of the kingdom about which they knew nothing. They, too, like the chain-wielders, sought power and dominance over others.

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Here and there, a bright being skittered about, bouncing off others and laughing as if they held the universe’s most hilarious joke within them. They drank invisible liquid from invisible glasses which were filled from invisible containers by invisible attendants. Others, moved zombie-like in random patterns, occasionally ingesting a calming substance into mouth, lungs or arms. Others sat, apparently comfortable, in small groups looking at a point in space. Occasionally they laughed, frown, expressed horror or delight at what they saw.

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In all this vast array of semi-humanity, few willingly stayed close to others for long. It was one vast roiling mass , each seeking their own fulfillments.

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Then, He directed my eyes to a small group, then to others, scattered within the seemingly boundless crowd. These were linked like puzzle pieces, to the rest of their group. Puzzles are not an apt description, though. In reality, each was joined to all the rest in a perfect sphere, a three-dimensional yin and yang of mutuality and support. As I was pointed to each group, they lit up, drawing me toward them, expressing delight at my presence. When one left the group, an umbilical cord trailed behind them still attached to the group. When they returned, they were reabsorbed into the whole again. Groups communicated with groups, an invisible but potent connection that joined them together in joyous praise.

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“Who are these?” I asked my dance partner.

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“They are those to whom I reveal myself, those who respond to my call. Look a bit closer.”

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I did. Their garments scintillated, iridescent. Now white, now red from a different angle as they moved. Other colors and never-before-seen shades shimmered as they moved. Those outside the group often shielded their eyes from the blinding colors.

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“Beautiful,” I breathed.

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“Yes, these are the Bride of my Son. To them are added those who are being saved. They are my witnesses, my martyrs, my holy priests and kings. You are one of them, back in your physical reality.”

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“How can this be?”

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“From eternity past, I knew you, planned you, knew you. When just the right time arrived, the right people, the right lineage, the right place were brought into being, you were conceived and were born and now live the life I planned for you from forever past.”

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“奥丑测?”

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“I want you to know Me as I am. I want you to know that I am everywhere and everywhen. You dwell within me. You live and move and have your being within me. Literally. It is not a spiritual pie-in-the-sky-someday living within me. I am the temple of Revelation. I am the home which Jesus left to prepare for you. I am the all that contains the all. There is nothing outside of me, no space beyond, no finite or infinite place or time outside of me. You were conceived, birthed and live within me and by my purposes. Nothing can separate us for there is nothing else to come between. I inhabit you and you are one of those who inhabits me. All others will someday come into that relationship, though, for now, they resist. There is, in actuality, no place to hide from me, no place to which to flee to escape me. I am relentless in my love for you and all those whom I’ve brought into being. There is nothing that I will not do to woo and win you and any and all of your fellow humans. I have sworn by myself that I will do this thing.”

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“Oh,” I said again, overwhelmed.

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I woke. Morning light streamed across my quilt. A grand sense of well-being flooded my senses. I hurried to my computer, not wanting to forget what I was shown. It fades now, lost in the myriad experiences of life. . Only a deep sense of awe, of reverence, of incomparable peace remains. Memories occasionally flood my spirit, reminding me of the sacred time He danced me within himself.

4/11/23

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