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Isaiah 44:22 – “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins:” Isaiah 1:18 –– “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Sometimes it takes a vivid dream to help us see reality. It did for me, not long ago. I had had a bad day, and was extremely tired when I went to bed. As a child I was plagued with nightmares. They were always the same. I was brought up in a very godly home. My mother was a gentle woman. Her actions, rather than a lot of words, shouted her Christianity. My father, on the other hand, drilled into his children what would happen if we did not follow the Lord. In other words, he was a "hellfire preacher" to us children. We always had prayer before going to bed. And time and time again I would wake up trembling, and in a cold sweat. I dreamed that Jesus had come, and I was left...Even after I had given my heart to the Lord, at the age of eight, I had these nightmares. I would stand at the top of the stairs, afraid to go down, in case my parents had "gone up to heaven", and I had been left. On a few occasions I got the nerve up to call out to Dad. He always came. We would kneel by my bed and he would ask God to take my nightmare away. Then I would go to sleep, reassured that I was still a child of God. When I became an adult those nightmares faded out. But on this occasion I woke up in the same old cold sweat. It was then that God gave me the same old assurance that I was still a child of God. This poem was born as a result of this recent experience. I had a dream last night.
I stood before the throne.
And on a great wide T.V. screen
My whole life there was shown.
My name was in plain view.
To ALL, God made me known.
I saw before my very eyes
The wicked seeds I’d sown.I hung my head in shame.
I didn't like this show.
I saw there all the hidden things
I thought folks didn't know:
The private, secret thoughts,
Deceits from long ago,
The mean and selfish things I'd done.
The list began to grow. But then the picture changed.
And on the T.V. screen
I saw Christ walking toward the Throne:
He’d come to intervene.
When God called out my name
I saw Christ step between.
I heard Him say, “I’ve paid the price.”
He’d wiped the record clean. And now another scene:
The screen was filled with light.
Again my name was written there.
But Christ had set things right.
I stood before the Throne,
Pure in a robe of white.
A lasting memory will remain
Of the dream I had that night. © Helen Dowd Isaiah 43:25 –– “I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgression for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.”
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