In the End, All We Have Is Family...

I had a very peculiar dream last night.

In the first part of the dream, I was looking over some genealogical charts I had completed for Göran's family. I had completed all of them, traced his genealogy all the way back to the beginning. Someone (unseen) was telling me I had completed the work and had done a good job.

Then Göran and I were on a moving train. We were walking down the train, passing from car to car. At some point, we entered a car and encountered Göran's family. I recognized his aunt and his cousin (whom I've been emailing and with whom I've spoken on the phone in the past week). We had a very joyous reunion. There were hugs and tears all around.

Then all of us were no longer on a train, we were in a home. My grandmother (who passed away last year) was there with Göran's grandmother (who is still alive and whom we look forward to meeting in Memphis in August). My grandmother told me she was concerned about my family, and it was important to bring them in as soon as possible. All communications with the outside world were lost: no TV, no radio, no Internet, all the phones were down. We realized it was the end of the world. Everybody was worried, but nobody panicked. We all stayed calm.

I was getting ready to go out on foot to find my family, when my father arrived in a jeep. He told me that my mom and the rest of my family were nearby. He had a cell phone that actually worked, and called my mother to let her know he had found us. I told him that he needed to let Grandma know that they were safe, and then we were going to go back together in his jeep to get the rest of the family.

It's been a while since I've had an apocalyptic dream. But whenever I do have them, they are always about gathering people in, getting them to safety. In these dreams I always find myself working right down to the last second to find that one last person and bring them in before night falls and the storm breaks.

I think my dad's jeep and his working cell phone in my dream were symbols of the priesthood. But what was most powerful to me in this dream was the sense that we are not truly safe, not truly saved, without our families.