DISCLAIMER!!! PLEASE READ FIRST!!!
I never had a prophetic dream that accurately predicted the future. I am certain I'm not gifted that way. I frequently do have nightmares if I happen to fall asleep during the day. So please do not read this as an imminent scenario with any real substance to it. Blame it on Donald Miller who - in one of his books I was reading again just yesterday - imagined what it would look like if his neighborhood was wiped out by a nuclear explosion.
So here is what I dreamed earlier this afternoon:
I was walking down the street with my family at dusk. Suddenly we overheard voices coming from one of the windows of a house we were passing, "Have you heard about Miami? Have you heard about Miami?" - "What about Miami?" - "Haven't you heard the news? The entire city has been wiped out in a nuclear explosion during the latest terrorist attack!"
We were all standing there in shock and disbelief. Then my wife hugged my girls and we all started bawling thinking about the victims and the devastation and being paralyzed by the fear of what would all happen next as a consequence. Then I woke up, still feeling numb.
It's one of those moments where you thank God it was just a dream but where you turn the TV on just in case - making sure none of it is true.
There's just one problem with this particular nightmare. Although unlikely, there's too much of a nuclear threat and of of an actual presence of deeply disturbed minds trying to create this very reality.
I'm not saying this to add to your anxieties or morbid tendencies to imagine worst case scenarios. But I would like to ask the question: how would an event like that radically change the conversation for many years to come? How would it affect our view of God and of humanity? Would we still carry on as usual trying to bring back some kind of normality and sanity to our lives or would plain survival be foremost on our minds?
How would churches be affected? What would we say to the crowds suddenly overflowing our sanctuaries desperate for an answer and for a word from God into the horror and the fears? How would we be able to hold back the wave of wrath and demand for retaliation that no doubt would arise like never before?
I'm starting to wonder if I should be really asking those questions. It's freaking me out just thinking about it hypothetically. It's not like we could really prepare ourselves for something like that, could we?
Maybe the only benefit of such scenarios is to appreciate what we have right now. Our spouses, our children, our joys and comforts, and that the world hasn't plunged into a nuclear holocaust yet. Let's pray and work hard towards the goal for none of it to happen - not in Miami, not anywhere.
