"My arms, I can't feel my arms," the thought tore across his mind. Panic was not quite there yet, but he was working on it, "Why can't I move?" With every last ounce of willpower he concentrated to move right arm. "Nothing! What is happening to me?" He could hear Jenny humming one of those new Christian songs round the bed as she dressed. He tried to call out to her, but his lips, his jaw, his throat were frozen. He teetered on edge, "Am I dead? I can't be dead. I hear Jenny." He struggled to open eyes... but realized, "They are already open! I'm blind... I'm blind... I can't breath!!"
"Wake up, goof head," Jenny's voice pierced fear. "George, you fell asleep with that pillow over your head... AGAIN!" Jenny pulled the pillow off his face. She shook him by arm and shoulder, "George, wake up..."
"Angel?" George whined, "Where am I?"
"This ain't heaven, George," Jenny chuckled, "but it is Sunday, so get your rear end up."
Now George did not particularly like going to church, but this particular day, church sounded like a pretty good idea. "I'm sure glad, I'm not dead," George said, rolled out of bed, fell hard face down on the floor. "Ouch!"
"A bit overly dramatic, as usual," Jenny commented, while applying makeup from her perch in front of bureau mirror, "Just get ready, dear."
Heavenly sunlight shined through the stained glass windows of the church that glorious day. George and Jenny sat three rows from the front in mid pew. And as the planned coincidence of heaven instructed, Pastor Mark approached the podium carrying visual aide. He held the pillow up for all to see, as he introduced sermon topic, "No amount of pillows over your head will hide you from the world." He paused, put the pillow over his eyes, continued, "But a pillow over the head will hide the world from you, so that it can sneak up... right behind you... and GET-CHA!" Pastor Mark tossed the pillow into the congregation.
To George that pillow seemed to float toward him like slow motion on a mission. George fought off attacking pillow more than just a tad too effeminately almost hyperventilating in the process, much to the good natured amusement of folks in pews all about. Jenny yanked renegade pillow off hubby, turned red, poked elbow into his ribs and mumbled under breath, "Get a grip, George!"
Pastor Mark continued, "So, what should we do with the pillow? How about putting that pillow under your weary head to give it rest, and to see... see near 4,000 years ago... see Jacob, the son of Isaac and the grandson of Abraham, the father of God's chosen children... see Jacob in journey passing. Genesis 28:10-19 paraphrased: In journey passing from Beersheba toward Haran, Jacob stopped for the night and used a stone for his pillow. And Jacob dreamed and did see a ladder, a stairway set up on earth and reaching heaven with angels of God ascending and descending upon it. And when he arose in the early morning, Jacob realized that this stairway is also the gate, the very door to heaven. Jacob therefore raised up that stone pillow as a pillar, and anointed that pillar with oil, and named the place where it stood Bethel, meaning House of God."
Pastor Mark paused, let it all settle in, or as in George's case unsettle in.
"Pillow to Pillar!" Pastor Mark continued, "Stone pillow risen as anointed stone pillar! Children I ask you: Who is our faith? Who is the solid stone pillar, the cornerstone of the House of God?"
"Jesus," the children in the congregation spoke forth.
"All who are children of God, I ask you: Who is the Rock of our Salvation?" Pastor Mark urged.
"Jesus!" The audience spoke forth, some shouted.
"Children of God, I ask you: Who is the ladder... Who is the very stairway between earth and heaven... Who is the gate, the very door, to go through, and to enter in, with the Living God, Our Father in heaven...
"J-E-S-U-S !!!" The congregation roared, rose to feet and praised the Son of God.
After a time the congregation hushed, sat, eager to hear. Pastor Mark clung to the podium, barely able to stand. "Jesus is the stairway and the doorway between earth and heaven that Jacob saw in a dream, as recorded in Genesis Chapter 11. But keep in mind also that in dream passing, Jacob received the blessing of faith, and in that new morning light, raised his stone 'pillow' of rest in memorial as the pillar of Bethel, the House of God.
Pastor Mark paused, began, "2000 years later, consider Jesus, who after having taught by the sea shore most of the day, Jesus saying to his disciples about the sea before them, 'Let us pass to the other side.' And in passing, behold on a 'pillow' in the stern of the ship, Jesus rested asleep, while arose a great storm of wind and waves that beat into the ship till near sinking. And fearing for their very lives, the disciples awaken Jesus from his 'pillow'... And Jesus, the very Stairway to heaven, the Rock of our Salvation, the Pillar of God's house, Jesus 'arises' and rebukes the evil winds and perverse waves of tempest tossed sea with these words: "Peace be still." And in the great calm, the great stillness, Jesus asks his disciples, actually asks us all: 'Why are you so fearful? How do you have so little faith?' And the awed disciples wonder, 'What manner of man is this that even the wind and the waves obey him?' "
After a moment, Pastor Mark reflected, "So, dear children of God, even though we live in the tempest tossed perverse sea of this world, why be fearful, why hide your head beneath a pillow, when faith in Christ Jesus makes possible even the soft bellows of heaven to be our pillows..."
With Jesus in her heart, Jenny hugged the arm of her husband and lay her head upon his shoulder. And George breathed easy... blinded by fear... never more... For George had passed to the other side... with Jesus...
Genesis 28:10-19; John 1:47-51; Mark 4:35-41: (Genesis 28:12 with John 1:51)
Postscript:
Of all the postscripts you will ever read, please take time to read and be blessed by one of God's 'planned coincidences' in the Bible: From the first book of the Old Testament compare Genesis 28:11 with Matthew 11:28 in the first book of the New Testament... and rest peacefully on the pillow of your faith...
Allegory & Scripture
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