Strange Dreams

[A]nd the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. -- Ecclesiastes 12:7

I have this thought that somewhere two beings walk side by side and talk.  One says to the other, “Sometimes I seem to remember as in a dream a body made of dust in which my thoughts ran wild and I did fear its dissolution.  And I fed it, too, the dust of beasts and things that grew in the dust and watered it that it might hold together yet be pliable, as clay.” 

The second being laughs.  “Who can imagine from where dreams come?”

The conscious mind is rather like a pool on a cruise ship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.  You could swim laps from San Francisco to Tokyo but it’s not going to affect your destination or the speed with which you arrive.  There is a lot going on with your ship that has nothing to do with the pool. 

My life has a destination whether I am fully aware of it or not.  I have a purpose whether I know it or not.  Faith knows that God is at the helm.  Some people are in a rowboat in the pool and are rowing desperately to get to where they think they want to go and are shocked when they end up somewhere else. 

I recall reading a science fiction story about a huge space ship that had begun a multi-generational voyage to an earth-like planet orbiting a star many light years distant.  Generations would live and die in the ship on the way to their destination.  Eventually, the original purpose of the ship was mostly forgotten.  After centuries, the ship was the universe to its inhabitants.  Someone on board stumbles across the truth, but it is regarded as a myth.  The ability to navigate had been lost, though it could be regained from documents found on the upper levels of the vessel.  Those who rose up to re-establish the mission were killed, the records were destroyed, and the ship wandered aimlessly on through the void. 

It sounds a lot like hell.