God's Dream

God’s Dream

(An excerpt from the book The Ikon of God)

“I dreamed a dream in times gone by…” So sings Fantine in the famous Broadway production of the classic, Les Miserables. This song has pulled at the heart of thousands of people because it centers on a singularly defining human characteristic and experience: dreams. Most children dream dreams. Among other things, they dream about what they want to be when they grow up. Little boys dream of being like their dads. Little girls dream of having a family and nurturing their children. There is something particularly human about having dreams; it is one of humanity’s defining characteristics. There is no record of any animal or angel having a dream for a better world. One of the most distinctive events in American history is Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech. His dream was about respect, that those Americans with African ancestry would receive the same respect as those of European ancestry.

Dreaming dreams is also something divine. God— in the eons past, before there was time, and before anything besides Him existed— dreamed a dream. Yes, God dreamed a dream. This dream was that His inexpressible generosity, His unimaginable benevolence, His furious largess, would be expressed beyond the Godhead, that it could be bestowed on lesser beings. And for this to happen, He would have to craft objects of that generosity; He would need to create recipients of His goodness. And what gift would God give to those beneficiaries? I would be Himself.

But—like Fantine and Martine Luther King Jr.— that dream faced obstacles. God’s dream required that the beneficiaries respect, recognize, and honor Him in order for that dream to come to pass. The first recipients of God’s grand dream were the angels. Two-thirds of the angels experienced the infinite and extravagant largess of Almighty God, but for the one-third, the dream was never realized because these objects of God’s generosity could not appreciate the dream they were a part of, and they disrespected and essentially spat in the face of  the cosmic Dreamer of dreams. They exchanged God’s eternal and expansive dream for their own confined and limited shadow, effectively removing themselves from God’s dream. Their personal world and their self-styled dream shrank from infinitely large to minutely small when they made themselves the center and object of their own dreams. This was and is sin: all sin takes one out of God’s immense and glorious dream and places one into the microscopic world of self.

However, when the cosmic dream fell on hard times, the Dreamer kept on dreaming, and the dream became even more grandiose. Every step backwards for God’s dream became two steps forward: it became an even more luxurious expression of God’s dream. For God, every problem became an opportunity for a more glorious outcome. The setbacks became opportunities to enhance the original dream. With the angels’ fall from the dream, God responded by making Man. Man would be different, more like God than any of the angels: he would be the image and Ikon of God; Man would be God’s representative even in the detail of his very constitution. This development is stunning: a creature would bear the signature of God. Man would be God’s representative as no angel could be.

But even after this, the dream faced (what would seem to us) insurmountable obstacles. However, to God— whose dreams are unconquerable— every obstruction  to the dream was another opportunity. Lucifer’s fall brought opportunity for Man. And then Man fell. This seemed like the end of the magnificent cosmic dream. But it was not, it was once again another opportunity for God to express His absolute benevolence. What was God’s response to this disaster? He, Himself, takes on humanity. God joins the human race: He is born of a virgin, lives a sinless life, and forever seals relations between God and Man. God condescends, stoops, to take on flesh and bone  in order to  walk Man back into the dream that God dreamed.

Human history is marked by four events: the Creation, the Fall, the Incarnation, and the consummation of all things. Man’s part in God’s dream started with his creation: Man came into existence, not as a company like the angels, but as a seed; one Man became the many. With Man’s turning from God, taking onto himself Satan’s grudge against God, we have the Fall. Man became God’s adversary in the likeness of Lucifer. However, immediately God brought forth a way around the calamity that leads to an even more glorious state of cosmic affairs. The Incarnation represents the beginning of restoration and the beginning of an even more glorious dream. This dream is offered to us; it is for the taking ; it is for those who wish to join the dream. Unlike Lucifer or Adam who were created into the dream, we have opportunity to choose the dream. While Lucifer and Adam opted out, we can opt in. It is commitment by choice that involves a continuous loyalty. In the end, the consummation of all things, the dream comes to completion. Then, all that defies the dream will be done away with, and then God’s dream will go forward through eternity, unhindered. This will be a never ending story.

You may be asking, how do you join the dream? You join it by believing in the dream, and believing in the Dreamer. It is signing on to the cosmic ride from Creation to the consummation of all things in Christ. It is by having a fixed loyalty to Him and His dream and making that dream a way of life. It is about becoming small in order to be a part of something bigger than yourself. This is humility: seeing yourself in the context of God’s greater, all-encompassing dream.

What is the essence of this comprehensive cosmic dream? It just so happens that the end of this dream has already been declared.

And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. (Revelation 21:3)

What is this telling us? That  quintessence, purpose, and aim of God’s dream is relationship, fellowship, and communion. When God said, “It is not good that Man should be alone” He was unveiling something of His own ambition for comradeship.