[443 words]
In a dream our minds create as we go. Landscapes, people, everyday objects…all these are made in an instant. Granted, they are imaginary, but have you ever considered how impressive that is? Sometimes what your mind makes is so convincing that, upon waking, it takes you a couple of seconds to realize that it actually was a dream. Is this an echo of God’s creative power that we retain since we are made in His image? Perhaps. Of course, what God can do is so much more impressive. We only dream. He speaks and what He says comes to be. And since God can do that the world we had yesterday doesn’t have to be the world we have today. We should sit up and take notice when the Word says “I am making everything new!” (Revelation 21:5).
Once in a desert some complainers started whining about the manna-only diet. It was a world without an Arby’s. They didn’t have the meats. But God told them that the world they would have tomorrow wouldn’t be like the world they have today. Tomorrow they would have meat. In fact, they would have so much meat they wouldn’t know what to do with it all. They would have meat for a month! Moses has a really hard time imagining this world. He says “Here I am among six hundred thousand men on foot, and you say, ‘I will give them meat to eat for a whole month!’ Would they have enough if flocks and herds were slaughtered for them? Would they have enough if all the fish in the sea were caught for them?” (Numbers 11:21-22). Moses’ problem is that he underestimates the creative power of God. It rained three feet of quail the next day. Not a dream – that actually happened. Such is the power of God.
In fact, the power of God is so mighty that everything we think we know can be changed in an instant. Behold He is making everything new! Today’s world of eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage may just be entirely different tomorrow. Tomorrow we could be living in a world that is beyond all that we could dream of. He “is able to do immeasurable more than all we ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20). Friends, if you’re a Christian I suspect this world isn’t everything that you hoped for. There might be some serious issues with the world that you’re experiencing today. But fear not. We serve a God that can change it all in a flash. In the time it takes to sound a trumpet. Someday He will.
Doug Wells
Camden Avenue church of Christ
Parkersburg, WV