Waiting for Paul of Tarsus to Wake Up – Don Hanley’s blog #43

I was nervous when I entered a dream with Mary and John. I was worried about what they thought about my brief confession before I vanished last time. But they seemed serene and radiant as they sat with a pretty young woman in a dusty white robe. She smiled and showed the same warmth and radiance as the other two. She was sitting in ‘my’ chair, and Mary asked John to bring another chair so I could sit in ‘my place.’

Mary looked at me and said, “Well, welcome back, my two-thousand-year-old friend. I would like for you to meet my neighbor Ruth. Ruth has just been telling us about a fellow she and her husband, Joshua, found barely alive and under an avalanche of sand and rocks on the road to Damascus. His horse was loyally standing near him. Ruth and Joshua brought them to their home here in Nazareth.”

Before sitting down, I took Ruth’s hand, and she smiled; simultaneously, she looked at me questioningly. She seemed puzzled by my khaki pants and short-sleeved plaid shirt. John placed the chairs so that Ruth sat next to Mary, and he sat down between her and me. I guessed that Mary needed to tell Ruth about vivid dreaming, or maybe she already had, or she wouldn’t be here in our dream. I said, “Ruth, I am so glad to meet you. I have been dreaming about John and Mary, and until this moment, they have been the only ones I have gotten to know in Nazareth. And you have a wounded guest in your home. You are married. Where is that lucky guy now?”

“Yes, I am a lucky woman; he is with our daughter, Julie. Are you a lucky man?” Ruth said this with the same confidence and poise as any 21st—century young woman.

“Yes, I am; she doesn’t seem to have vivid dreams but enjoys hearing me talk about my dreams and journeys. So, please tell me about this wounded fellow in your home. I looked at her, Mary, and John, asking, “And where is his horse?”

Mary answered, “It is tied up in the back of her house. And we took the man’s saddlebags inside. John was about to read some of his pages when you arrived. Neither Joshua nor Ruth nor I speak or read Greek, and everything is in Greek.”

John added, “I just read his instructions from some superior in Rome, but it just tells me that he was instructed to meet with Luke in Jerusalem and report back to him about what kind of efforts the Jews are getting into to disturb their Roman superiors. I assume this man you brought home and in your house is a Roman citizen, or he would not have a horse. And the man named Luke may be one also. We may see him soon, I believe. From the letters, I am sure his name is Paul of Tarsus.”

Ruth said, “He is in what Joshua calls a coma. Joshua worked in a clinic in Capharnaum before we were married, and he told me that often, when a person is in a severe accident, they pass out and seem to be sleeping for days or even weeks before they regain consciousness.”

Was this Paul of Tarsus, the fellow who wrote all those letters, or Epistles, that take up almost all those pages of the New Testament?

So, I said, “There is a Paul of Tarsus in the New Testament of the Scriptures, or Bible, and he was a Pharisee and had persecuted the Christians who have been following Jesus and later became a follower too. And John, I bet Luke is one of your eleven Apostles of Jesus and a fellow writer. I hope I will get to meet him in one of our dreams.

And, with that, I vanished, but please . . .

Keep opening and nourishing your hearts and thinking about the menus while enjoying the banquet.

 And a big thank you to those of you who commented on my blog - please join them.