I
dreamed, that my
wife and I were spending some time together. It was a
beautiful spring or
summer day. We were just
walking around in an
urban setting. It was near the
heart of an old city and there was a
castle there. There was a sense of
importance about the place. It was a place of
history and
ceremony.
Entrance was
free.
We walked about the castle climbing higher and higher. At the top, there was a gathering of people and a sign outside a room saying: "Today, change your name to Smith & Jones." Curious, we entered in and took a seat near the back of the room. There was a man behind a raised partition at the front of the room. He was an official of some kind. All the people sitting there were dressed in a Western theme and the room looked like a saloon from the old West without the bar.
He spoke: "All those partners that want to change their names to Smith & Jones, please stand." Everyone got up but us. I look at my wife in an inquisitive way as if to suggest we should stand and change our names too. My wife looked at me with panic in her eyes. I started to rise and pulled her up but she resisted. She said to me: "I want to be your partner, but changing our names to Smith & Jones, I don’t know about that."
The crowd got restless waiting for my wife to decide what to do. There was a woman on the left side of the room who spoke up, "You seem to want a wedding not a partnership." Shortly thereafter, we left that place and started down again. At first the trip down was as easy as the trip up but then it got harder and harder to find the way. We got separated. And I ended up wandering around the lower levels of the castle on my own. Some people were trying to get out over a fence. They had small mementos in there hands obviously pilfered from the castle. For a while, I watched their great vain effort to escape with the treasure. At last, I found the well-guarded exit but couldn’t leave without my wife. So I wandered some more until, to my great relief, I saw her coming towards me. Only then we exited the castle together.
From my dream, I was left with the sense that God makes some things hard to do for a reason because they require careful thought and gut wrenching introspection before you commit yourself to a path that will change your life. He puts people and other obstacles in your way as tests that help you think clearly about what you are doing before you make a decision that will effect not only you but the others you care about.
I also got the sense that objects and things that are so important to others compare nothing to the importance I place on my relationship with my wife and that my relationship is just and right. But, my wife never did change her name after we got married. Go figure.