Two Dreams

Last night I had two dreams. Like Pharaoh, I woke up wondering what they could mean. Where is Joseph when you need him?In the first dream I was at a book fair run by a church and a Bible college. There were many tables laden with theological books. There were also women putting lots of delicious looking baked goods onto other tables. Little children raced around amongst the tables and everything looked ready for business. But there were no customers. One woman expressed her dismay. “We made all this food to encourage people to come.” “But there’s no place for people to sit” I said, “and you’re not offering any coffee or tea.”

In the second dream I was again at a fair. This time it was a toymaker’s. I had heard about it and Pieter agreed to take me there. He dropped me at the door and we arranged a time for him to return. As I stepped into the building, which happened to be an old wooden church, the toymaker himself greeted me. But my attention was completely taken by the sight before my eyes. Handmade toys of every description: felted dolls in gaudy colours, brightly painted wooden vehicles and puppets, metal wind-up toys sparkled on the shelves, and a hundred pretty mobiles hung from the ceiling. “Oh, this is amazing!” I enthused.

Immediately, the toymaker reached up and took down one of the mobiles. It was a nice one, but others had already caught my eye. As I continued to enjoy the fantastic array of toys, the toymaker took the mobile to the counter and began to wrap it. I believed he had made a wrong assumption and I was quick to point this out to him. “No, no,” I said, “I don’t want that!” He didn’t stop straight away, and I had to repeat myself several times. Finally he ceased wrapping. His hands fell at his sides and he looked up at me. There were tears in his eyes and his whole face crumpled with grief. Slowly he turned and walked away.

Some women were also in the shop and they’d seen what happened. One came to me and quietly explained. “The toymaker made every toy in this place,” she said.
“But didn’t he understand that I didn’t want to buy that toy?” I interjected. “I would have bought something else; it’s all beautiful, I would have found something to buy.”
“Buy?” she said. “He was going to give it to you!”

You can imagine my horror to hear this. I needed to find the toymaker and explain my actions. But then Pieter returned and still the toymaker hadn’t reappeared. I had no choice. I left the toy fair empty-handed.