What a ride!

I love body surfing. The exhilaration of being picked up and carried along like a jet-propelled cork (well, in my case, more like a rotten egg) by a powerful wave is hard to beat. I even don't mind being dumped occasionally, as long as you don't get sandpapered in the process. Few experiences match body surfing for its capacity to humble us in a pleasurable way.

Last night I had one of the best rides ever; a monster of a surge propelled me along for about 15 seconds. And I didn't have to towel off afterwards, or change clothes. Didn't have to spend a penny on gas to get to the beach. Nor did I suffer a sore elbow like I did last time I tried it in the flesh (silly old man). You see, I dreamed it.

Let humanists try to explain dreams as an adaptation to, well, who knows what, or as a vestigial function harking back to the days when our ancestors naturally selected to have dreams as a means of enhancing man's powers of invention, or some such thing. Doesn't the idea that God gave them to us as a delightful form of entertainment available equally to the Bombay beggar as to the yachting set strike one as more persuasive? Every conceivable genre, every possible plot, every imaginable story line can be found in the meanest

person's dreams. You have thrillers, science fiction, romance, comedy, you name it. As for special effects, move aside Hollywood. You've got nothing over my middle-of-the-night productions. And don't you just love being able to fly all by yourself? (Sadly, I haven't had a flying dream for a few years now. What's wrong with me, dream interpreters?)

I'm not proposing entertainment as the sole purpose of divinely-given dreaming. Solomon seems to suggest that their capacity to disturb our nightly repose is some kind of “punishment” for allowing our lives to become preoccupied with worries (Eccl. 5:3). And Job says something about dreams I won't venture to explain:

In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, while slumbering on their beds, then He opens the ears of men, and seals their instruction. In order to turn man from his deed, and conceal pride from man, He keeps back his soul from the Pit, and his life from perishing by the sword (33:15-18).

Nevertheless, I stick with my personal conviction that we should seek to make the most of this gift of God. Why not try to gratefully enjoy them; they provide the most inexpensive entertainment you can get.