Night Dreams

On climbout. My iPad camera doesn't do the scene justice

Thursday evening I got to go on a night flight with my student and we had a blast. The experience of taking a small plane up at night is especially delightful. The airport is peaceful and has a quiet charm to it as you preflight the plane and get ready to fire up. Pretty blue lights line the taxiways and the orange windsocks are illuminated and look like paper lanterns. Then as you accelerate into the sky, the bright white runway lights give way to the panorama of the lit-up city. Yes, I enjoy going aloft at night.

We toured the central valley, getting in the requisite landings at several airports: Merced, Castle, and Modesto. We had the airports all to ourselves, as often is the case at night. Then as a treat to top off the training flight, we arranged to do a couple touch-and-go landings at Sacramento International. It’s pretty cool getting to join the same lineup for a runway as the “big boys”; we followed a Delta MD-90 to Runway 16L and were told that behind us was a United 737. Fun stuff!

Yup, that's SMF from above (Yes, different airplane; had to borrow a snapshot from another flight)

With the lesson starting just after sunset and lasting 3.5 hours, it was after 1:30 a.m. before I finally got home and hit the sack. Worthwhile, and yes, tiring; I’m not a night person.

For some reason after drifting off to sleep, I dreamt I was still flying and trying unsuccessfully to stay awake while my student was getting ready to land! I guess I must have been really tired to be dreaming about sleeping, ha!

Ironically, the next morning I was reading in the book of Daniel, one of my favorite parts of the Bible, and the story happened to be about someone who also had a strange dream. As the account in Daniel chapter 2 goes, the famous Babylonian monarch Nebuchadnezzar was in a frenzy because of a dream that he apparently couldn't remember, but nonetheless felt was very important. Dreams in the ancient world were considered communications from the gods and he was anxious to know what this dream was and what it meant.

Of course the court astrologers were useless in remembering the king’s dream for him, but in the end it was a Hebrew exile named Daniel who saved the day because he had a connection with the true God who had given the dream.

It’s a remarkable account and you can read it here to get the details, but the thing that stood out to me this time reading it through was the personal interest God had in the Babylonian ruler. As Daniel recounted the details of the dream, he started out by reminding Nebuchadnezzar what he had been thinking about before dropping off to sleep and the reason why he had this dream.

“As for you, O king, thoughts came to your mind while on your bed, about what would come to pass after this”. (Daniel 2:29 NASB). Nebuchadnezzar had reached a pinnacle of glory and success that few have ever achieved, but just like any other human being, he was still wondering, What next?

The answer to that question came directly from God: “He who reveals mysteries has made known to you what will take place.” (Daniel 2:29 NASB). The dream and its interpretation gives a fascinating outline of 2500 years of world history, all foretold accurately before it happened. At the end, the last culminating event is explained. After millennia of conquest and change, God Himself would set up a kingdom that would never end. And that was the main message He wanted Nebuchadnezzar to know. 

“Inasmuch as you saw [the object that symbolized God’s kingdom]…the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this.” (Daniel 2:45 NASB).

What a neat encounter with God! He was interested enough in a pagan king’s musings about the future to give him a glimpse of what would happen and the ultimate ending. And He was interested enough in you and me to preserve that story so we could see just how it turned out as foretold.

Just like Nebuchadnezzar, I believe God wants each of us to know what the great hereafter holds as well. All the events predicted by dream have happened except for the last one. Sometime soon it’s going to happen, all the chaos and heartache is going to end once and for all, and “the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed”. (Daniel 2:44 NASB). Sound like something you’d like be a part of? I sure would!