Nicole and all the Doves,
I was so overjoyed by your post, because our Father in Heaven can be
funny and has the best sense of humor(since He created humor in the
first place)...maybe a better term for it would be whimsical joy. And
He sure does know about joy and the innocence of His children. Since
its what Christ said we should be like...innocent children.
Not to
mention the finite and detailed intimacy that He shows in such
revealings of Himself and His prophetic utterance to any individual
that is willing(all are included). Nicole' post is so filled with that
lightness and joy, with youthful innocence and colorful whimsy, loving
childlike abandon, yet in truth and in spirit...I'm smiling with tears
just thinking about it. I'm so happy today. I almost enjoy being here
on earth on days like this and even if He doesn't come for us today,
I'm joyful and content.
I had a dream in 2005 that the Lord gave
me in response to a very serious question I posed in prayer, that had
that same sort of funny, happy character to it that made me laugh when
I awoke and realized that my Father in Heaven loved me like a young(and
somewhat childish) son. I know what its like.
I have a
daughter(grown and married now) that when she was a little girl, one of
the most joyful sounds to my ears was to hear her laughter. I can't
explain it except that it touched something so deep in me as to make me
happier than I've ever known, then or since. What a joy to hear the
innocent laughter of children and to know how much more our Father in
heaven loves us and the joy it must bring Him to hear us make a joyful
noise(to His purpose and pleasure).
I guess I'll share the dream,
although at the time it seemed so personal and complex that I didn't
think I should tell anyone about it. But, even if nobody else gets it,
it was still funny enough to laugh out loud immediately upon awakening,
even before I quite deciphered the meaning of it.
First the
question I posed in prayer was this: should I be concerned about the
difference in usage between the original Hebrew name of our Lord
Yeshuah as opposed to the more modern anglicized Greek transliteration
we use, Jesus?
and this was His response in the dream:
The
dream first of all was an animation, a cartoon. Very much like a modern
Disney movie, perfect in every way. With an intro and background
music...it was if I were watching a Don Bluth or Pixar movie on a big
screen, and I was also a character in the animation. I'm telling you it
was perfect down to the last detail. And there was a plot.
My
Family...myself(about 13 or 14 yrs. old) and older sister and mother
and father were going on a vacation to a Tahitian island in which the
resort where we were staying was at, no, in a lagoon. The resort were a
series of Tiki style huts that were built directly over the water and
in order to enter the huts you had to dive down into the water and come
up in the center of the hut(no regular doors, Only God could have come
up with that one, still not sure if there is significance to that
part).
In the dream my mother had made me a costume army outfit
with the initial of my last name and then a coma and then my first
name, as such : G, Clay (in the dream my name was Clay
Gilche(pronounced gill-kee). This little detail of my name and the way
she printed it on my outfit is the key to really understanding the
meaning of the dream, (I'll explain at the end). There was another
feature to the dream that made it really seem like a real Disney epic.
One of the main characters was Elvis Presley(as himself, I guess on
vacation), but remember, this is an animation and his character was a
stylized cartoon version of Elvis(kind of like the Aladdin' lamp movie
style, very well done). He had a young girlfriend with him that had a
french accent(she reminded me of an actual actress from the time) and
when she would say my name(she would repeat what my mother had printed
on my outfit), she would say "Giclee", which is a neologism and is
derived from the French term "gicler", which means nozzle or "to
spray"(I'm actually an airbrush artist for thirty years, told you this
was personal). Its a term used for a very elaborate and realistic
printing process(to create imitations of the original).
Elvis
was very busy and on the phone most of the time, so the girlfriend
would hang out with the teenage boy in the army getup. The rest of the
details of the story are rather long and unnecessary...so, allow me to
explain the salient points, and remember, some of the references are
things that were like inside jokes to me concerning mispronunciations
and a printing process that not many, other than artists or printers
would be familiar with. The very term "neologism" is indicative of that
very characteristic.
One of my dearest friends, also a painter and
I were interested in this printing process for some of our own work,
However, he simply could not remember the proper pronunciation of
"gilclee" GEE-CLAY...he would pronounce it, GILKEE. Like my name in the
story, Clay Gilkee. His mispronunciation became a joke between us and
after awhile, neither of us would say it properly.
So, how does
this all answer my question to God? Well, first of all, we're talking
about a printing process that imitates an original, and then, we have a
mispronunciation of the word for that process, which my mother gave
me(my mother, the Church)...not to mention we are in a cartoon, which
is a child like rendering of reality. And then you have the French
woman who would say the name in a light-hearted and funny way(but the
actual word), remember this word is a neologism. A neologism: is
a newly coined word or phrase that may be in the process of entering
common use, but has not yet been accepted into mainstream language and
is used to describe the use of words that only have meaning to the
person who uses them, independent of their common meaning...This is
considered normal in children, but a symptom of thought disorder in
adults(artist' and musicians do this a lot)
Our Heavenly Father was showing me that children often use
mispronunciations and/or nicknames as representations of the more
authoritative "real" name, but in the most gentile and loving way...a
sort of endearment for children that is acceptable under the
circumstances, so that our use of the transliteration "Jesus" is not to
be made a big deal about or argued over.
However, "a name"
signifies title and authority and therefore when reaching maturity
should always be accurately used with honor , respect and permission
from its owner.
When my daughter was a little girl, she would
mispronounce others and her own name. We thought they were so cute we
started using them as nicknames(hers especially), but, when you come to
use a persons name for legal or authoritative purposes you must use the
original name!
But, God was showing me that we as children are still OK as long as the Spirit and Truth behind the name is accurate.
Like
Nicole had said, God can be as funny and fun loving as he needs or
wants to be and HE REALLY LOVES US AS LITTLE CHILDREN. When we enjoy
the love of our Father and laugh a little bit, I know it makes him
happy. YOU, my beloved brothers and sisters, make HIM happy.
much love, your brother, Chris K.