Continue Feeding

The other night I had many different dreams. The dreams did not follow naturally from anything I had experienced in the day so needless to say, it was weird. What was also weird was that I woke up remembering one of the dreams very clearly. In that particular dream, I had a baby. I had never had a baby, so you can imagine the predicament. I remembered it clearly though, he was a newly born baby boy; he was small, pristine and beautiful and he was mine. The dream spanned some months of his life.

 In his first few months I fed him on breast milk. I remember, in the dream, switching breasts from left to right to ensure that he was getting the best quality milk all the time. I remember that I always had him with me and I remember looking down at him peacefully suckling away. Then some months passed and I forgot that I had a baby. You read right...I completely forgot that I had a baby boy! When I had awoken from the dream I found it strange that the baby did not cry to remind me that he was still alive, or maybe he did cry but I could not hear. That never occurred to me in the dream. Even stranger though, was that when I remembered and I went back to pick up the baby, the baby was alive! I remember doing the calculations in my dream. He was eight months, but he remained fairly the same size that he was when I last fed him. I remember taking him up and breastfeeding him again. I remember thinking that at eight months breastfeeding alone could not be sufficient. Still I fed him until I noticed that the milk in my breasts were drying up too quickly, I had to be switching from one breast to the next and each of them were hardly yielding any milk at each turn. Still my baby did not cry or maybe I could not hear. So I took him up and looked at his face. What I saw was an aged face and the face was sad and bore much frustration but I continued feeding him. Thank God the dream ended there.

 When I got up and questioned God about the apparent weirdness of the dream and even more about why I remembered it in so much detail. The response was jolting. This dream was very symbolic of my and many of our Christian lives! When we begin in Christ, we are like newly born babes; hence that stage of passively receiving sustenance has its relevance -‘breast milk’ is sufficient, it is in fact vital.1 Peter 2:2. 

However other important things were revealed. First, is that when we are in Christ we are expected to grow, in the same way that new born babies are not expected to stay at the same stage or level, but to grow. Hebrews 5:12-14.  Second, is that each stage of Christian growth has its required sustenance.

One stage may require the pampering and attentiveness required for babies while another stage may require trials, hardships, and the testing of our faith. In the dream it was clear that the breast milk at eight months was not sufficient. Third, is that when we stop growing or pause growth in our Christian lives our salvation does not die! We will however have to go back to basics – in the dream, the breast milk. This will inevitably lead to some remorse and frustration because we will sense that we are not at the stage we are supposed to be. What then is the response to such a situation? Whatever we do at whatever stage we are at, we must continue feeding, and we must never give up! God ultimately determines the beginning and the end, for he who began a good work in us is faithful to complete it! Philippians 1:6