Lost at Pentecost

 

 
 

I dreamed that you were afraid of your angel,
shadowing your sweet curls,
a burly man
with unruly hair and untidy beard,
dressed in a red t shirt and jeans.

I held out my arm to stop him
but he passed almost straight through,
and wakened me in a ghostly moment
from another space where,
maybe, that ghost is me.

Context (so what?)

This verse was written about someone I met who was starting to come to terms with life in the spirit. I remember when I first became aware of the spirit in my life, how frightening it was to come into contact with something so alien and powerful. I really felt for this person as she came into my prayer.

The dream happened in the week leading up to Pentecost. This is proper and appropriate, as Peter reminds us in his quote from the prophet Joel, ‘your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams’. Part of this dream is about my concern that my own perception of prayer and spirit could be creepy to anyone who doesn’t share my experience, part of it is about someone coming to terms with the spirit, beyond all preconceptions.

In the inevitable way of dreams, it all turned out to be too much for the young person, and she dropped out of my life.

The picture is of my prayer, drawn in the symbolism of Pentecost, on two levels. The spirit, my friend, and myself represented as tongues of fire joined together in our prayer of the spirit, as well as the more traditional understanding of the external tongues of fire linking ourselves and each other to God through the spirit.