My Vivid Recurring Dream…

“For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.”
Isaiah 41:11

For several decades I would have a vivid recurring dream. I was always sitting on the same old wooden serene bridge with my feet dangling not too far above a beautiful peaceful creek. 

I was always sitting there with a man. His presence seemed to allow me to feel safe. 

For years I tried to understand and make sense of who this man could possibly be. I felt happy. I felt heard. And an unmistakable peace. 

I had often thought back to the day of my childhood when we were visiting my dear grandmother. Visits were rare, but I felt so loved by her and loved being in her fancy house with beautiful breakable things. I mostly loved the smell of her kitchen.  There were always cookies in a jar on the counter and smells of the most delicious food as she spent hours preparing the next meal. One afternoon, Dad borrowed a canoe, strapped it to the top of the station wagon and we went canoeing down a small river.  The landscape was cozy with vegetation thick near the shore and trees growing close to the edge with branches overhanging the water. There were bends and breaks in the river that only allowed us to see just a small way ahead.  Dad taught me how to control the course of the canoe with the movement of my paddle on the right then left side. He taught me how to use the paddle to maximize pull in the water to efficiently propel forward.  It was a perfect day.

There were parallels to the scene from that day in my childhood to the creek in my dream, but in my dream, my view and vantage point of the heavily vegetated creek was from above…

I tried to make note of any notable experiences I was having in life that coincided with the dreams. There was nothing obvious to help me understand why I would have the recurring dream. 

One day I was talking it over with a friend having experienced the vivid dream the night before. She suggested to me that perhaps I was at a simple crossroads in my life. Perhaps a simple trial or faith-building experience. Perhaps…as I was trying to navigate the turns in the waters ahead, I understood a different perspective might help add clarity to the path. 

Perhaps- the man on the bridge was God. I felt an unabandoning closeness to Him that never felt deserved. The peace I felt was definitely always in accompaniment and unfailing. 

Perhaps the dream was a reminder and an invitation to prayer- to talk it over with God and an accompanying promise that He would never leave me. That in Him and His son was a never expiring path of peace…

-JC

Peanut Butter Stuffed Nutella Cookies

½ cup soft butter
½ cup butter flavored Crisco
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup Nutella
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ cup dark cocoa 
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Scoop 24 Tablespoons of peanut butter onto a parchment lined sheet and freeze overnight. 
Cream butter, Crisco, Nutella and sugars with an electric mixer on medium high for 1 minute or until fluffy. Hand stir in eggs and vanilla extract; don’t over-mix. Add dry ingredients all at once and mix until fully incorporated. Add an additional 2 Tablespoons flour for high elevation. Scoop out approximately 48 – 1” balls of dough.  Flatten and wrap each disc around the bottom half of a frozen peanut butter scoop. Flatten a second disc of dough for the top of each cookie and seal the edges.  Flatten slightly.
(For a richer flavor and smoother texture refrigerate or freeze until ready to bake.) 
Place on parchment paper lined aluminum cookie sheets. Bake at 375 degrees for 10+ minutes  Drizzle with melted peanut butter if desired.
Let set. Share!