Dream Within A Dream

Has anyone seen Inception? If you have, you'll understand this post. If you haven't, go out and rent this movie, watch it, then come back and read this post. Or, just keep reading...you'll catch on...

I had a dream within a dream last night. I woke up this morning remembering that I had woken up from a dream, in my dream. It was so strange. In my dream, I was awakened from a dream by some commotion around me. It turns out I was sleeping near a small stage where a group was getting set-up to lead in worship songs. An old friend from my Senior year of high school (and her sister, whom I don't think I have ever met) got up on the stage, setting up their microphones.I just stared at them, thinking about how weird that was. I didn't think it strange that I was sleeping out in the open on a cot, but instead, that an old friend was on stage about to sing.
I rolled over and tried to wake up enough to get up and out of the way as more people began to gather. Nobody seemed to notice me, though.
Then my alarm woke me in the real world.
Or was it the real world? (just kidding)

Whenever I have strange dreams, it gets me thinking. Why do we have such seemingly random dreams that have no meaning? Or do they have a meaning? Why do some people have such vivid dreams, while others don't dream at all, or cannot remember them? And why do some people have dreams that show a clear sign to do something or go somewhere, and then it shows up in their real life? In a book I finished reading recently, the writer explained how God showed her the next place she was to move through a dream. Then she kept seeing signs in her everyday life that clearly pointed that way, so she moved.

The Bible has several occasions where God uses dreams to deliver important messages and directions. An example for the season we are in is from Matthew 2.13:

Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him." And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, "Out of Egypt I called my son."

This was a very important message, and Joseph obeyed, which did two things with one action. It protected the baby Jesus from harm and it fulfilled prophesy. Isn't God efficient?