I have heard it said that you know that you have truly learned a new language when you dream in that language. My oldest daughter, McKenzie, always wanted us to host foreign exchange students while she was growing up, So, we hosted students from France, Germany and Sweden. The final student from Sweden, Christoffer, lived with us for an entire school year. I remember that on one morning, several months after he started to live with us, he announced that he had dreamed in English. That was a big turning point for him in his mastery of our very complicated language.
I myself have never had the opportunity or necessity of learning a new language, so I don’t have first-hand experience of this phenomenon. What I can say is that, for the first time last night, I dreamed about having a heart transplant. It was vivid and I awoke in the middle of the night with a little tinge of fear and one of those “Is it real or just a dream?” moments. It was as if I woke up and the surgery was complete and I was in recovery. I put my hands on my chest and looked around the room. It took me a moment to regain my bearings and realize that I was still lying in waiting in the Critical Care Unit.
I believe in the power of dreams and how God can use my dreams to prepare me, teach me, warn me and guide me. I believe that there are things about our conscious and unconscious minds that we don’t truly understand. That there is some divine touch in them and through them and when I truly let my guard down, during sleep, God can and does break through my walls. This reminded me of the process of healing that I have been going through for years. Early on in my struggles with A-fib and A-flutter, I was diagnosed with sleep apnea. This isn’t unusual because a high percentage of people who have sleep apnea also experience A-fib. Or the other way around, I don’t honestly remember, but I know there is a proven connection between the two. The first night I wore a C-pap, which enabled me to continue to breath normally through an entire night of sleep, I awoke the next day in a brand new way. I had a restful, complete night of sleep and I remembered dreaming. In that moment I realized that I hadn’t remembered dreaming for years. I thought I had been sleeping perfectly fine until I actually experienced sleeping perfectly fine. Isn’t that how life works? You don’t realize what is missing until you truly realize what is missing through experiencing what was missing.
Now, don’t miss what I am saying. Do I believe that the realization of dreaming about a heart transplant means that I will soon receive the gift of a new heart? Yes in deed I do believe that. I believe that for years God has been preparing me for this very moment. I believe God has been working in obvious and not-so-obvious ways for a very long time to lead me to this very place in time. I believe that the dream is nothing more than God reminding me that he has got this and that everything is going to be alright. After all, in my dream, I woke up after surgery and that is a very good thing!