I had an interesting dream last night. I was sent to accompany 7 or 8 different groups of people to help them cross over a river. All these groups were led by one older woman without her own family, yet they each looked (and acted) like a grandma to their particular group of people. I do not remember how many now, but time after time, when I was sent to a group I would be assigned to their midst to help in making a way to cross the river- while the old woman for that group would stand in the middle of the river and oversee all of us crossing. Then somehow, all of the older women would not tolerate or allow my acts of help- (like picking someone up, or giving someone a hand), making it so that I could not help out in the ways that the ones around me needed me to. Sometimes I would be called out and made to stand on the sideline, watching them make their way into the river, and then each group would scatter or spread out to all directions after the crossing over. Sometimes, I was cast out instantly and had to walk away in great sorrow and sadness.
But it was not so with the last one of such a mission: I was embraced instantly by a kind old lady with a scarf on her head. ( I feel led to add this descriptive detail, although actually I don’t remember if the other old ladies wore any…) She recognized that I was sent to help by the one who had directed them to cross over the river, and she quickly assigned me into their midst and watched with gladness that I readily became one of them, and began to help those before and behind me. We did not say any extra words, but she looked at me with a sense of understanding and acknowledgement: we were doing exactly what was assigned to us, and we were going to make it this time.
I was reminded of the circumcision after the crossing of the Jordan river recently. Also of the portion of scripture in Revelation 12, talking about the man-child being presented to the throne. It took 7 days before a newborn baby would be circumcised at (and before) Jesus’ time, while the mother had to remain outside of the tabernacle (temple) to be cleansed. On the eighth day, he was to be circumcised, and only then could the mother be admitted into the temple again. It is indeed as though in one day He had rolled away the reproach of slavery. The son became of the joy and glory of the father and the mother. Evidently, the “crossing over” is to make a people to be circumcised, so that they can become a covenant people whose God is walking with them and living among them. And in our case, He has chosen us to live in us and among us.
