Defending the Red-Dressed One

It has been more than a while since I have written. From the open doors and concluded seasons, to just the plain tediosity of sitting down to write, for me, I have not found myself with the interest to do this very much.

However, for some reason, I feel the urge to log a recent dream here with brief introspection. I am grateful for the variety and vividness of my dreams, especially the many and regular action ones. They are like fascinating movies, sometimes with several scenes, that span quite a time when actually laying them out, that I wish I could bring into natural form. Well, here is one of them, not nearly as long but intriguing nonetheless...

It was a sunny afternoon outside a very nice building with a lot of pavement and at least a second story of outside balcony and stair access to living quarters, which turned out to be a two-plus story hotel/motel. A lady in a red dress to her knees with a thin black belt and black short-handled bag-sized purse was being harassed by some guy who got to loosening her belt. Her escape was to get to one of the rooms on the second floor, and she somehow wrangled away, opened the door, tightened her belt, and with some words dignifying herself, closed the door on him.

I saw this happening up close almost as if I was there in the middle of it, and willing her in some way away from this guy into safety. But it was all taking place in front of me without my actual hand in her escape.

I was surprised he did not try to come after her. But there he was...and suddenly me too, now seemingly visible...and now, for some reason, appearing as this woman, red dress and all!

At first, I tried to act discreet because I did not know what this guy might now do to me if he thought I was her. But as he began to go back downstairs, suddenly this was all inside the hotel and not an external exit (you know how dreams can be, changing things on you), I saw him walking down the stairwell to leave the otherwise very empty, almost state-of-the-art designed hotel, and I could not just stay there at the door.

A boldness filled me, and I began to slowly fly in descent down the hollow of the stairwell to where he was, still walking down. And I took that purse and walloped him on the head when I got to him. He ran to through the high-ceilinged lobby to get out, but in the two-set door foyer, the outer set was locked. He came back, and by then, I was there, in the lobby, swinging the purse like a lasso and old-fashioned slingshot, and I knocked him a couple more times.

He ran to the stairwell again and tried to get into a service door, but a guy bigger than him, who seemed to be someone he had been in league with in some way, came out and put a gun to his head, pressing him against the wall. At this point, I did not seem to have the red-dress woman's cover on anymore. And for some reason, I threw a couple partially-eaten apples at the original perpetrator while he eventually got away from this guy.

And thus the dream concluded.

I could probably take a long time giving life and expression to various details and how my heart resonates with certain aspects, but maybe I will just say, there may be some reading this who have experienced what that woman experienced in their own way. And it felt like they barely got away, finally, some taking longer than others to do so. And the hold someone or something had on them, often but not always including an emotional bond, or threats, things that play on the emotions...

You are cherished. You are loved. Your red dress is emblematic of the lovely worth that you carry, and the loving, pure, genuine, trustworthy desire that your Beloved has for you personally.

I got to play a really good role in this dream, and yes, that is where my heart is, to be a defender and protector of dignity, respect. But there is a much greater One who does this, whom I was representing. One who stands for you, will stand in your stead, and will be your Defender, and will empower those who have willing hearts to stand for you and by you.

For me, in retrospect, maybe I was only brought to the situation as things concluded, but I would have rather been involved in helping the loosening from this person beyond just me willing it. But a dream can be reflective of situations, where perhaps it was not for me to be part of, or, God brought me into the situation at a point to then operate at her time of safety. Either way, there is always a superhero desire within me to save the day. I have gotten better over the years at yielding to the only true Superman, Jesus Himself, so as to keep me from making myself bigger than I am, or putting certain expectations on myself that take Jesus' place.

That said...that red-dressed one, that beloved of the Beloved, may she find the grace in that safe place to lay out her heart on the altar, that operating table of the Master Physician, and find herself in the safest Hands she has ever been in, unto cleansing, mending, healing, and full restoration of things broken, missing and stolen.

A flood of grace and peace from God's Spirit to you...