Dreams: A Wish Your Heart Makes
Analyzing and interpreting dreams has fascinated people through the ages. Theories and speculation about their purpose abound while disputes among neuroscientists, psychologists, and philosophers continue. However, for people of faith, the answer may lie in the Judeo-Christian history of dreams as vehicles for divine communication.
The Book of Genesis says God visited Jacob in a dream at the time he was fleeing from his brother Esau, whom Jacob had cheated from his birthright. Physically exhausted, emotionally distraught, and spiritually desolate, Jacob saw a stairway resting on the ground with its top reaching to the heavens, “and God’s angels were going up and down on it” (Genesis 28:12). In the dream, the Lord stood beside Jacob, promising to bless him with descendants aplenty, saying, “I am with you and will protect you wherever you go, and bring you back to this land. I will never leave you until I have done what I promised you” (Genesis 28:15). Upon awakening, Jacob proclaimed the ground on which he slept holy because his dream had established a point of reference between the human and the divine. For Jacob, the dream symbolized God’s providential care for his people…
