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Dreaming serves to make us healthier -- mentally, physically, and emotionally. But do dreams improve our spiritual health as well?
As 1995 cover story in Life magazine, "The Power of Dreams," recounted some dreams of famous people. Journalist George Howe Colt wrote, "Dreams have been credited with the creation of Mont St. Michel, the discovery of the structure of the benzene molecule, fixing Jack Nicklaus's golf swing, Lyndon Johnson's decision not to run for reelection in 1968, many of the routes mapped out by Harriet Tubman for the Underground Railroad, and enough novels, poems, and paintings to fill the libraries and museums of a small civilization."
Over the years, we've received many stories from people who had animals appear to them in dreams to alert them to problems, tell them where to find a lost pet, or say a final good-bye after death. Are dreams one more way in which God works through animal messengers to let us know that a Divine and loving hand guides our lives?
Sharon Ward
Alpharetta, Georgia
My cat, Alpha, came to live with me when she was six weeks old. She is a beautiful black tabby with big gold eyes. Over the past eleven years, we have grown to love each other very much. She's like my own child.
Several years ago, I thought I might lose Alpha. She and I had moved into an apartment with a new roommate who was "cat-less." This was the first time Alpha had ever experienced being the only cat in the family.
I worked full-time, but I lived close enough to come home for lunch. Alpha's usual behavior, before we moved, was to run up to me when I came in the door. In our new apartment, I wasn't as welcome; Alpha had developed an allergy, and my noon visits entailed applying some awful medicine and giving Alpha a bath to help heal her skin. It was torture for both of us when I applied the medicine.
I noticed that Alpha was becoming increasingly depressed and lonely. She spent most of the time sleeping in her cat box. She no longer greeted me. I was distraught. I feared that Alpha's emotional state wasn't helping her to heal.
This condition went on for a couple of months. I was very busy at work, and I had volunteer duties in the evenings and on weekends. I hardly had a moment to think about what to do for my dear Alpha, who seemed to be slowly slipping away from me. I desperately asked God for help.
Then one night I had a dream. In the dream, I saw Alpha nursing a large kitten -- a multicolored tabby with jellyroll striping. The weird thing about this kitten was that she was really too old to be nursed. When I awoke from the dream, I told my roommate about it. We agreed that God had answered my question in this dream: I should get Alpha a companion so that she wouldn't be lonely.
With my heavy work schedule, I didn't know how I would find a kitten for Alpha. Besides, it was about a week before Thanksgiving. I had plans to fly to Wisconsin to visit my family for a week.
I believed that I had to find a kitten before I left on the trip. That way, I reasoned, Alpha wouldn't feel I had abandoned her. On Saturday afternoon of the weekend when I was to leave, I finished up loose ends at my office and began to skim through the day's newspaper for ads about free kittens. There were only two ads for kittens, and just one of the phone numbers was in my area. When I called, I learned that one kitten from the litter was left.
I hurried to the house and agreed to take home an eight-week-old female striped tabby. I quickly whisked her up and placed her in a box for the short ride home. When I took her out of the box, I realized that she looked exactly like the kitten with jellyroll striping I had seen in my dream.
Of course, Alpha wasn't happy to see this stranger in her house. She hissed and spit at the new arrival. I wondered if I'd made a big mistake. I worried that Alpha would hate me for this further indignity after what she'd endured with my attempts to heal her allergy. But there was nothing I could do now because I was leaving for Wisconsin the next morning. My roommate said she'd look after the kitties while I was gone. I spent the entire vacation worrying about what I'd find when I returned.
I came home to a surprising sight. Alpha and the new kitten, DeeDee, had become very close while I was gone -- so close that DeeDee would suckle on Alpha, just as she had been doing in my dream.
Soon Alpha was fully healed from her allergies and depression. She and DeeDee became the best of companions. These cats and my dream serve as reminders of the depth of God's love for all life.
Have you had a prophetic dream involving an animal? Was there some kind of guidance or instruction in the dream that enabled you to better care for yourself or an animal?
This article was excerpted from:
God's Messengers
by Allen and Linda
Anderson.
Reprinted with permission of the publisher, New World Library. ©2003.
www.newworldlibrary.com
Info/Order this book.
About the AuthorsALLEN AND LINDA ANDERSON are the founders of the Angel Animals Network (www.angelanimals.net). They are also inspirational speakers and coauthors of Angel Animals: Exploring Our Spiritual Connection with Animals. They offer a free weekly newsletter, Angel Animals Day Brightener. They share their home in Minneapolis with a menagerie of animals and donate a portion of the revenues they receive as authors to animal shelters.
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