Nightmare by Susan L.

  Dreams rarely stay with me come morning but this one has. Even the anxiety that swept over me in the dream is still settled on my chest. It's silly, really but then many nighttime imaginings are. In this one, I got trapped in an elevator after it dropped a couple of feet. There were other people there as well. I am rather claustrophobic but strangely, elevators have never been a problem. In the dream however, I panicked big time and it woke me, heart pumping madly, in the small hours of the night.
  I have no idea what the significance of this is, if any. It might have been Pumpkin jumping on the bed. He isn't a small cat by any means. He's woken me up before by shivering hard enough to shake the entire bed on a few cold nights. It's a wonder I didn't dream of earthquakes and yes, I throw a blanket over him, poor fellow.
  I am rather reluctant to explore the hidden meaning of dreams. There's enough of that when I am awake. Hidden meanings that is. And boxes, if an elevator can be considered a box. They are built by assumptions, presumptions, expectations, experiences, judgements and plain old ignorance. I confess most of those are my own. They are part of the human condition after all but the Lord is and has been opening them one at a time. He's been patiently helping me dump the contents in the trash.
  Then there are the good boxes: beautifully wrapped Christmas or birthday presents, new shoes, tea, and my favorites, cookies and chocolates!
  Better yet are the things that don't belong in boxes: God's love, faith, His Word, our own and other's potential, possibilities, hope, joy, peace, healing, patience, grace and gratitude. Jesus and the Holy Spirit top out a list that has the potential in itself to be infinitely longer.
  Help me live life, Lord, outside the box.
  "And being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as He sat at the table, a woman came having an alabaster box (KJV) of very costly oil of spikenard. Then she broke the box and poured it on His head." Mk 14:3