The End- The Conclusion

Do you ever have deja vu, but in a dream? For me this time it was this same hall, sanctuary type place. I have been there many times but never in the real life.

“Hurry we will be late for rounds! Do you have your papers? Has anyone seen mine?” I shouted, as I scurried to get the girls out the door.  One would think that we would be better at keeping our papers in a safe spot as they are our lifeline to almost everything today. Silly we refer to them as plural papers, or that we call it papers at all. We have a card. A digital card. It is for everything. Food lines, medical history and eligibility, and religious beliefs. Maybe we all call it papers because that’s how it all started out. Papers with your vaccination status, papers for passports, papers for birth certificates and so on. I shouldn’t be surprised as nothing these days is called what it really is.

All families or households are given a number. Every month each family number must show for rounds. So we make our trek. As we walk by the brick building where I left my friend, I am reminded it has been 3 years since I’ve seen her. Three years ago it was a choice to join. Now, we have rounds, no questions asked, no cancelling for any reason.

Walking into the building, I realize I had been in this building before. But not for rounds. See, most always you are not sent to the same building twice. Many buildings, many folding chairs, and many hours of sitting. This building I was in today was the same building I had been in in my dreams over my lifetime. I will never understand the significance with that but it does make me feel a bit more comfortable today. A familiar place, even if in only in my dreams.

So the sitting begins. And we wait. And wait. The boy in front of me has freckles and ginger hair. The tablet they give the children to keep them quiet has lost its interest with this boy. He turns around and stares at me. He them returns to his right position. Then he turns back to me and stares. He does this until I smile. He is clueless to what is going on. But we are aware. My husband and I, we know.

Nothing ever happens during rounds. We sit, we wait, we show our papers, and we go home. Rounds are nit as scary as they were in the beginning.

The next month, and we are back at it again. From, “Where are my papers!” to the folding chairs drawing the life out of my backside and legs. But this time there is a different man with a clipboard. He says with a booming voice, “If you identify with the sign of the cross, please step forward.”

Silly when you think about it, because they know very well which of us in this room are for the cross.

We rise and get in line. As I stand there, I see crosses everywhere around me. Gold cross necklaces, crosses wrote on tshirts, and crosses on armbands. They come out of no where, because the cross and all it signifies has been banned from being displayed for the last three years. But here they are coming our from hiding.

“Once the line is formed, the man says, ” All those who identify with the sign of the cross will be going down this hallway. We will be taking good care of you from there on.” I know better. But where is the mark? Aren’t we supposed to we offered the mark?

“Look at me, girls. This is it.” I plead with them not to be scared. I’m bent down to their eye level. When they hear the man say that we will be taken care of, hope like I’ve never seen crosses their faces as they look to me. I must fill them with a better hope than living and being safe on this planet.

“No, they will not take care of us. We will die when we walk down that hallway. But we will be with Jesus this day, in Heaven!” My husband and I hold onto them as we walk forward, knowing the Mark must be down that hallway bit we are in the line that states Who we live and die for.

The actual dream:

My grandpa brings in groceries and talks of how there is a shortage of food and we rummage through the box. Next thing I know, there is brown flooding water under an overpass. I see one friend get on a coachline type bus and I believe she’s safe.

Next thing I know I’m sitting in a folding chair in a gymnasium holding onto my sister hugging and crying with her. The chalkboards show up and I read the following, bring your toothbrush….(there’s a bunch of items I skip over in my head, in the dream) you will now go fight in the Battle of …all I can tell you here is it was not the battle of Armageddon. The reason I know this is because my mind did not recognize the name. I cannot recall the name either.

Next I am in another gym, hall type place. In folding chairs. This is the place I’ve been in other dreams. A little red head boy with freckles turns around in front of me and smiles. I get the feeling that everything is ok.

Next we are in another building, gym and we are being told to come forward if we identify with the sign  of the cross. I see crosses on people coming forward. We are told that we will be taken care of. But we know better. The girls are looking at me with hope that we will live and I tell them we will be with Jesus today. And I wake!

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