For most of my life I have had dreams and visions of Heaven.  They say that young men dream dreams and old men see visions.  As an old man now, I would have to say that when I have a vision, it is very short, and I spend a lot of time figuring out what it was and what it means.  As for the dreams I had when young, they were clear, colorful, specific, and meaningful. I rarely shared these dreams and when I did it was with someone who understood.  I shared a lot of them with my mom.  Others I kept to myself and thought about them from time to time until I felt it was time to share with others.  The following I have not shared with anyone, and I recently had a clear indication that it was time to share this one.  This dream I had about 25 years ago, and it is as clear today as it was when I woke up that morning.  As I write this, I will add some parts to help explain what is going on.

This is the dream:

There was a knock on the door.  I opened it and the person asked, “Are you ready?”  I responded that I was.  I stepped through the doorway and closed the door.  We walked the short walkway to a buckboard which had a horse to pull it.  He climbed aboard and slid across the seat as I climbed aboard.  I asked, “Where are we going?”  He looked at me a smiled.  He said, “I love this part of my job.  What you will see today will show the impact of your life on Earth.”  We rode on in silence as I enjoyed the colorful countryside.  The horse looked back at us as he kept up the steady pace of pulling the small buckboard wagon. 

The road rounded a small hill and as we entered a park-like area, it was full of people.  They were all standing there waiting for something.  (This part of the dream is still crystal clear to me) The horse stopped.  I asked what is this?  The guy who was with me said, “These are all the people who are here because of you.  We thought you would like to meet them.”  I responded, “I have never seen most of these people, how is it possible that that are here because of me?”  He said, “Unknown to you and others on the old Earth, people watched how you lived and wanted the peace and confidence you had.  That peace and confidence was a result of your realtionship with God through Jesus Christ.  Some decided to attend a church where they heard the good news, others asked someone else about life with Christ.  Those people did what they did because of seeing how you lived.”  I was overwhelmed as tears filled my eyes.  I climbed down off the buckboard with one foot on the front wheel, jumped to the ground as people surrounded me.  I did not know what to say so I stood there looking everyone in the eye.  They did the same, no words were spoken.  I hugged a few people I did recognize, and even some I had never seen before.  I walked around smiling at everyone as they all returned their smiles.  I ended up back at the buckboard after what must have been a long time – time sort of did not seem to exist like we know it here on Earth.  I climbed back up to my seat.  The driver signaled the horse to slowly start walking. The crowd parted as we made our way out of the park. 

This is where the dream ended.

I have thought about this a lot over the years and have not shared it with anyone.  There was a man where I live, who passed away recently.  Many people knew him; he worked in real estate. In his obituary was quoted a line he said, ‘Aways witness for Christ, sometimes you might have to use words.’  I though about that line and concluded that we don’t have to be a preacher, work in ministry or be a missionary to witness for Christ.  We must live our lives God has for us but live it like Jesus would.  Some many people get caught up in ‘religion’ and lose sight of the relationship God wants with us.