Visions of Heaven

When my mom had a heart attack many years ago, I remember sitting in the waiting room, talking with my aunt and realizing that I knew every word she was about to say. I had had this conversation before. I remembered waking up one morning and being very confused about the grey interior of the room, the seriousness of the situation and why I was talking to my aunt. Weird.

That's happened to me again and again: De ja vu. Some believe that it means that we have lived more than one life and we are cycling again and again through it, so we remember the event in the next life. I don't buy that. Some say that it's a chemical reaction that makes us believe that we had that experience before when in reality we haven't. I don't buy that either. These visions are about very specific events, conversations, and details that could never be predicted and have no associations. I am not looking for them. I am often in the middle of something and am surprised to find that I know the next thing that's going to happen because I had dreamed a small portion of it earlier. Sometimes I will wake up and think, "Where in the world did that come from? I've never been to that person's house, country, etc." Strange, really. If you're reading this, you either understand what I'm talking about or you think I'm losing it. You are either clairvoyant or you are not. I wonder if this is what people mean when they say, "The Lord spoke to me in a dream..."

Several years ago I had a dream that I was dancing in a tropical kind of place and there was a mirror with a fancy dress, a tacky scarf, an oversized handbag. Weird. Many years have passed since then. Last month, on a Tuesday afternoon, I went to my Zumba class at the YMCA and ended up in the back row. It was crowded. I didn't mind. In the back row, you can see the palm trees and the mountains through the windows. A little Hawai'i, a little salsa, and loud music. Just right. And then I turned to the left. There it was: the dress, the scarf, the bag, hanging on the mirror because my Zumba friend didn't want to put it in her locker. Though I never gave the dream another thought after that first morning, I instantly remembered waking up in my bedroom in Maryland wondering what in the world that was all about ( I never would have worn that dress with that scarf, I had never been to a tropical place). I remembered being confused and brushing it off as I sipped my morning tea. And there I was that Tuesday, several years later, in a place I never expected to be, being reminded that God knew the plans He had for me before I was born.

I don't think those visions are a chemical reaction. I think they are visions from Heaven from a loving Father reminding me that He is with me and in me, before me, behind me. My Zumba instructor is very good because right before the music changes, she tells us the next move so we know what to do. I think that's what those visions are about: God is telling me that life is coming around the corner, don't forget the next move: Trust in Him. He has a plan.