The Gospel Game: Wonderland

I'm going through a weird season right now where I have quite a lot of nightmares. If anybody knows any advice on why they may be occurring or how to stop them-- I'm all ears. But don't believe this post to be a pity-fest; I've grown fairly use to the scare sessions by now. A quick cup of cozy coffee in the morning and the world is set right again. 

A few nights ago, however, I had one nightmare that I just can't seem to shake. It was incredibly vivid, and also incredibly odd. I'm actually a little bit proud of my imagination for conjuring such an interesting spectacle. 

It began in our attic, which had turned into a space as large as a high school gymnasium, and was some sort of mystical Wonderland. It was absolutely breathtaking. Towering, vibrant trees in an array of wild colors, shimmering with the slightest breeze. Cascading streams sung melodies while drifting around rows of flowering shrubs. Golden light poured down to the ground through the branches and danced on the green grass floor, creating kaleidoscopes of different shapes and hues and causing everything to look alive. I meandered down paths, taking in everything one piece at a time, in awe of the immense beauty, captivated by each scene... yet something inside of me knew, this place wasn't right. Something felt off. Creepy. Hazardous.

And then I learned what it was. Some of the brightest trees leaked poisonous gasses. The stream could turn to rapids and take you under in seconds. The scent from certain flowers would make you ill and weak. There were dangerous animals, dangerous fruit, dangerous everything. I began running and seeking an escape, finally descending my attic stairs back down to the safety of my kitchen, only to find an odd woman, my age, telling me I had a call that had been on hold for a half an hour. The call was from a hospital. My husband was in a car accident. I asked the woman why she didn't come to the Wonderland to tell me of this, and she just smiled and left my house. She was trying to trap me up there, wasn't she? She wanted me to die there. 

After getting my husband from the hospital (he was ok!) we decided to enter the Wonderland once again to find a way to seal it off forever. Not even a minute after we arrived, the woman was there, laughing hysterically. Suddenly, everything shifted. The bright and vibrant colors turned to shades of gray. The golden sun became snow, then rain. The trees branches that once danced in the wind began swinging violently in our direction, and the inviting streams nearby turned to rushing rivers and overflowed. All around us the clear blue sky became a movie screen, showing weird paranormal instances, and pictures of every other couple that had come to the Wonderland, and never left. We heard the woman say that we, too, would soon be on that screen. And then... 

I woke up.

Woof! Crazy, right? I try not to wake up Dan every time I have a nightmare but I definitely did that night. He stroked my hair and fought off sleep while I recounted everything to him (he's so wonderful :) and then he posed our ever-favorite question: how does this relate to the gospel?

A Wonderland. A seemingly beautiful, perfect place that in reality offers only death. What a great analogy for the affects of sin. I could live my life for greed, my every actions built on gaining more and better things, but in the end it will not satisfy and I cannot take it to my grave. Some days I want so badly to say hurtful things to my husband, to bring him down so I can be the one who wins, but in the end it will only hinder and not help our marriage. That seventeenth cookie may be calling my name, (and goodness knows I can down a lot of cookies!) but in the end it will not satisfy, and only cause my hunger to increase. Sin never lasts, never satisfies, never wins... and in the end, it brings only death. 

But there is freedom in Christ. Redemption and goodness. He gives us his righteousness so that I don't have to give in to sin. I don't have to jump into the seemingly perfect stream that will only wash me away. The water is rough, and my God is a steady rock, able to stand through the greatest rapids of this life. 

And one day he is taking me to the true Wonderland. A place where the trees don't kill, the grass won't fade, and his glory is the sun that gives light to every day. 

This life is fast, fleeting, fading. And its Wonderlands the same. Very much like a vibrant, shifting dream. 


Have sweet dreams, my friends!
Agape,
CC