The Dreamer - Monica

CA. 331–87

Perhaps every mother dreams of great things for her children. In Monica’s case, the “great thing” was a relationship with Christ, and the “dream” was an actual dream. Concerned for her oldest son, Augustine, as he lived the wild life of a college student, she found comfort in a strange vision.

“She saw herself standing on a sort of wooden measuring stick, and there was a bright young man coming toward her, happy and smiling at her, though she was grieving and bowed down with sorrow,” Augustine later wrote. When she explained that she was bemoaning the destruction of Augustine’s soul, the visitor pointed to the other side of her. There was Augustine, sitting there. The visitor said, “Where you are, he will also be.”

Monica found great comfort in this. Later she shared her ongoing worries about Augustine with a priest, who told her, “It is impossible for the son of these tears to perish.” This prophecy also buoyed her up. Somehow her son would come to faith.

After about another decade of praying and waiting, Monica’s dream finally came true. At age thirty-two, Augustine became a Christian. Now where she was, spiritually speaking, he also was.

Going back to Bible times, there’s a long history of God guiding people through dreams, but it’s a tricky business. In his tell-all book, Confessions, Augustine mentions that Monica also had some dreams when she was trying to fix him up with a good wife. “She did, indeed, see certain vain and fantastic things,” but he attributed them to her “strong preoccupation.” Even Monica had to admit “she could distinguish, by a certain feeling impossible to describe, between [God’s] revelations and the dreams of her own soul.”

That might serve as a helpful distinction for us, too. God may use our hopes and dreams to comfort us, inspire us, or to remind us of his promises. But sometimes we just dream about things we want, and if we’re honest with ourselves, we usually know the difference. In Monica’s case, the dreams were tested by her interactions with others. In the first case, a priest confirmed the promise of her dream with his own wisdom. In the second, Augustine confirmed that she was just being a meddling mom.

God speaks again and again, though people do not recognize it. He speaks in dreams, in visions of the night.

Job 33:14-15