A Dream of Our Father
06/18/2017
A Dream of Our Father
Fr. Al Demos, June 18, 2017
I once had a dream that I was in the awesome Presence of Almighty God. There I was, in a spiritual state, filled with angels and saints, before God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, enthroned as One!
Immediately, I fell on my face, prone before God. If there was a way, I would have dug a hole to hide in. How could I, in my unworthiness, be there in the presence of Almighty God? And though I realized that all of us are always in the presence of God, there I was, actually unable to look up and dare to gaze upon God’s wondrous glory.
So, I slowly and reverently crawled to the throne of God; and once there, I wrapped my arms around God’s ‘ankles’ and rested my head upon God’s ‘feet’. All I could say was, “My God and my Father, my real, true, heavenly Father! I love you!”
What an inexpressible experience! How does one express the profoundest feelings of complete and utter serenity that encompassed my entire being? When I am with my wife and our sons I feel so totally complete – so fulfilled and purposeful. Yet, in this dream, I experienced a different awareness of being, a unique sense of absolute spiritual fulfillment and wholeness.
There, one insignificant, unworthy creature encountered his Creator. What an overwhelmingly humbling and awesome experience! There was no sense of time, no sense of urgency, only the wondrous beauty of the Presence of God. It felt like an introduction to death. If that is true, then death is glorious. There was no fear, no apprehension, nothing whatsoever of a negative nature. Everything was wondrous, meaningful, complete, awe-inspiring…a sense of basking in and absorbing the very wonder of God.
Eventually I awoke, and I found myself feeling a sense of longing in missing that special experience of my dream. Yet, I was happy to still be alive, to have more time with my wife and our sons. At the same time, however, I felt a powerful sense of confidence in God – despite my own unworthiness and weaknesses – I found myself looking at death as a wondrous passage that conveys our souls from this world to the experience of foretasting the very Presence of God.
To me, this was just a special dream – special because of what I experienced through it. How I wish I could share that dream with everyone I know, for them to feel and experience what I felt and experienced. Since this was so meaningful for me, I cannot imagine how unbounded the experience will be for all those who are such better Christians than I am. When that time does come, my hope and prayer is that it will be life’s greatest celebration for each and every one of us – an eternal celebration in being in the Presence of God; enfolded and embraced by the wondrous love, joy and grace of Almighty God.