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He said, “Listen to my words: “When there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, reveal myself to them in visions, I speak to them in dreams.”
-Numbers 12:6
Many cultures place significant importance on dreaming. Our own scriptures are full of communication from God in dreams, like Joseph’s dreams about his brothers and the future of his people, the dreams of Joseph and the Magi, and even Peter’s dreams about kosher food. There are promises to us about God gifting our prophets with dreams. It’s possible the revelations to Ezekiel and John of Patmos are dreams as well. Many ancient cultures value dreams and their language reflects it. The Ojibwe verb for, “go to sleep,” also conveys the idea of, “go travel.”
The Ojibwe of our modern day Midwest and Canada believe that you travel when you dream. What a beautiful notion. The Magi shared a dream. We don’t know how many Magi there were that visited Jesus. We know only that they had three gifts among them and that there was more than one Magi. In those days, groups or caravans were safer for long journeys. Imagine three or perhaps dozens of Magi camped out and awakening to discover they had the same dream in which God reveals King Herod’s evil intentions for the Christ child. The Magi were Zoroastrians and not Jews. A message from the God of the Jews in their collective dream must have been a powerful sign. And they believed it. And their dream told them to take a new journey.
As we lay down to sleep, this Christmas season, we perhaps will be thinking of the dreams and visions of Christmas stories from The Nutcracker to The Night Before Christmas to Scrooge’s nighttime visitor spirits. But I encourage you to read the Christmas story with a mind’s eye to the dreams of Joseph and the Magi. Consider those stories in new ways. Take the journey with them and imagine it more vividly. And perhaps, your own dreams will take you places you’ve not been yet. Go to sleep. Go travel. Niban.
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