Reaching Out

It was a dream.  Not a prophetic dream, but one I recognized.  There were no crowds, but I knew beyond the scope of the dream that we were not alone.  A large number of people were moving toward a final destination, as we were.  Others followed us, reaching out to hold us back, but the name of Jesus kept them beyond arms’ length.

We came to a gated entrance, with iron work filling the opening. I reached out to one woman behind me, begging her to join us, taking her hand and moving through the gate.  She pulled away from my grip and jubilantly returned to the few standing outside, joining together with their calls for us to return.

I stepped back through the gate, asking them to call upon Jesus, to come with us.  A woman reached out for my hand.  I took hers and made a cross on the back of it. The image remained on her hand and we backed through the gate as I woke up singing:

In the cross, in the cross, be my glory ever

Till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river.

Fanny Crosby’s full lyrics are found in numerous places on the web. I wonder if her inspiration could have been Paul’s letter to the church at Galatia:

But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,  (Galatians 6:14a KJV)

It is the author of Hebrews, though, that describes the cross best for me:

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2 KJV)

I believe Christ described that joy Himself:

I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance. (Luke 15:7 KJV)

Before anyone jumps to the conclusion that they fall into that ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance, remember other words from our Lord:

He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (John 3:18 KJV)


Though my dream was just another dream, there is the reality of reaching out to share the cross with one not on our same path. That, I do.