Just before waking up on one of the days last week, I had an interesting dream. Although I tried hard to figure out the explanation, I did not get to know the meaning of the dream until the following day.

Understanding dreams is complex. Many dreams go without explanations and we pass them off as one of those events that did not mean much. Whether we should attach importance to all dreams, I do not know. But what I know as a Christian is that certain dreams for sure are means through which God communicates to us. We have many Biblical examples . In Mathew 1: 20 , we are told that an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him that what Mary conceived in her was from the Holy spirit and that she was to give birth to Jesus. Daniel Chapter 7 talks of Daniel having a dream.

One needs to know the context and setting to understand the meaning of dreams. In my dream, I was looking at a lady who I later learnt to have been a messenger from God. She spoke with authority which helped me to interpret the dream . Knowing the position of the person(s) one is interacting with helps with understanding the dream. She spoke as someone who knew me very well and she also spoke with full knowledge that I was responsible for fulfilling what she was about to tell me.

She instructed me with the words ” you have to take care of my son “. Thoughts quickly run into my head as I prepared a response. Which son was she talking about? She spoke as though I knew the son she was referring to. It was my responsibility to take care of her son. She was not asking me. She was telling me to take care of her son. From her point of view , I had the responsibility to do so and I did not seem to have any other choice. I quickly started to give my response but she never gave me the opportunity to do so. My response was going to be that I do not have a son. I only have daughters and I didn’t expect a surprise son because I have never been with any one else besides my wife.

The way she reacted was swift and firm. She successfully indicated to me that I had no explanation to give whatsoever. There is a Luganda ( Luganda is my vernacular language ) expression that people use when pushing back on someone trying to say something with the aim of showing them that what they are about to say does not hold any firm argument or is not worthy of mentioning. She used that expression that I find no direct translation for in English. She did not stop there. As I started to speak I began to lift my head from a recumbent position. I felt a heavy load on my neck and chest, as if some one heavy was stepping or sitting on me. I could not make any movements at all. I got scared and stopped talking. Immediately she disappeared.

I then woke up. I wondered what the dream was all about. What hurt me most was that this person neither gave me an opportunity to explain my self nor did she allow me to ask questions. It was a firm communication. I had to find out what she meant. And the way she stopped me from speaking seemed unconventional to me.

Less than 2 hrs into the day I started feeling epigastric pain. I wasn’t feeling good at all. I will not go into further details of the way I felt. I informed my wife that I was not feeling well. My entire day went on that way and I had a discussion with my wife about the need for me to make changes with what I eat. Because of my good BMI, I have not bothered so much about being extra careful with what I eat. I do not take alcohol and do not use any drugs. But still I could eat better. My wife has always told me to mind what I eat. My day was not good and I got worried about the way I was feeling. I was not feeling this way the day before.

As the day went on, I kept on wondering what the dream was all about. And it totally surprised me that this lady did not allow me to respond to her.

My wife and I were conversing early the next day as I prepared breakfast for the family. Suddenly I began thinking about the dream but my wife wasn’t aware of my thoughts. She then said ” you have to take care of your self “. I had heard this the day before only that ” my son”, was replaced with “your self”. It suddenly occurred to me that the lady in the dream was referring to me. I believe this was a messenger from God that He ( God ) had instructed to tell me to take care of my self.

As I drove to work after breakfast, I was reflecting about this. When I came back home , I told my wife about my dream.To my surprise she had no recollection at all of telling me that I had to take care of myself earlier that day. Is it likely that she was used to interpret the dream without her knowing that she was doing so. Possibly!

To summarize, I had a dream about something I was yet to experience. The dream was a firm message to me but I didn’t understand right away that it was directed to me nor did I know the meaning of the message. The setting of the dream, the presentation and tone of the messenger as well as my experience that day all played a key role in my understanding of the dream. The meaning of the dream was confirmed to me by my wife the next day even though she didn’t know that she was doing so.