Christmas is a time for dreams.  Not those dreams which come in sleep, often crazy, mixed up and soon forgotten.  Not the nightmare kind.  And not the visionary vagueness of the imagination which is out of touch with reality.  Christmas is the time for dreams in the sense of wide-awake aspirations, goals, plans of action in the imagination.

          We know that this is because all of us have these dramas.  They come in the form of hint lists we pass around before Christmas, which if properly interpreted by those who get them, will mean gifts under the tree to delight our hearts on Christmas morning.

          Life is made up of dreams in which we stand on tiptoe, looking toward the horizons of hope and expectation.  And we need interpreters of our dreams.  We are not self-made people.  We are always dependent on somebody else.  One man boasted that he was self-made.  Another suggested that if he ever had to do it over he ought to get help.

          If you want to build a house, you need help, someone who can share your dream and help make it come true.  Recently I visited a young couple who dreamed of a new home.  When I arrived they were sitting at a table with an architect.  All the plans were laid out and he was explaining what he had done to get what they had dreamed of having in their new home.  They had put their dream in the hands of an architect who could help them make it come true.  Put your dream of Christmas with someone who can help make it come true and Christmas will be a happy morning.

          A few years ago my wife and I visited Bellingrath Gardens near Mobile, Alabama.  Out there in what was once a semi-tropical jungle one fails to find words to describe the beauty of God’s good earth.  As you walk through the gardens, inspired by the artistic plantings, the lake, the flowers, and the animal life, you know it had to be a dream fulfilled.

          Standing out on the South terrace of the Bellingrath home, surrounded by beauty and charm, you look out across the lake that encircles a part of the gardens, and see the shacks and unplanned chaos, commercial things left lying around like in a junkyard, and you know Bellingrath didn’t just happen.

          In the early 1920’s, according to one of the brochures, Mr. and Mrs. Bellingrath dreamed of making this semi-tropical jungle into the charm spot of the deep South.  And today it is the mecca for garden lovers the world over.  There in the Gardens is a monolith carving which holds the key to their success in making their dream come true.  It bears the name of George R. Rogers, Architect, and Mr. And Mrs. Bellingrath’s tribute to him, in one sentence: “The Interpreter of Our Dreams which Resulted in the Perfection of these Gardens.”

          It was a beautiful, warm, late November afternoon when we stood and read the carving, and the thought came to me, “What better way to understand the birth of Christ and his mission in the world than the picture of what happened here?” God looked down on his world, which he had created and called god, and which man in sin and disobedience had turned into a jungle of almost animal behavior.  And he saw lust and power, injustice and savagery marking life in those days.  The rod of oppressors made heavy yokes.  The needy were kept from justice and the poor were robbed of their rights.  Widows were for spoil, and the fatherless became prey for the wicked.

          As Joel, the prophet, wrote for his day, in the Persian period of history, he said, “They have given a boy for a harlot, and have sold a girl for wine, and have drunk it.  Isaiah’s way of describing his times was, “The people that walked in darkness.” It was truly a jungle filled with sin, and its fruits were growing.

          But in this jungle, “Men sought after God, if haply they might find him.”  They had their anxieties, pains, fears, sorrows, and hurts just like us.  But they had no kindly God to turn to.  Israel misunderstood the nature of God.  To them he was a righteous God, but a hard God, filled with wrath and anger, a God of justice and judgment.  But they saw not his compassion and tenderness.  Ezekiel describes the elders of Israel burning incense to images in hiding from the people.

          Philosophers told of a Creator who manifested himself in nature with power and greatness.  The Romans embodied their guesses about God in Jupitors and Junos or the weather.  He was not the kind of God to turn to in time of trouble.  The poor savage was frightened by the resistless power of nature.  The fierce storm rushing along, the crashing tree of the forest, the thunder, hail and fire sent him cowering to his cave to make idols to satisfy his angry god.  The dark centuries rolled on.

          Meanwhile, God had a dream for his people in the jungle of sin, a dream that would change all this.  “The desert would blossom as a rose; it shall blossom abundantly with joy and singing.  For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool and the thirsty ground springs of water.” (Isaiah 35)

          And God will send an interpreter for his dream.  Isaiah describes him, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulders, and his name will be called “Wonderful Counselor, Might God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” John describes him, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Mary, in the beautiful Magnificat, says, “He has shown strength in his arm; he has scattered the proud in their hearts, he has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of low degree; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away.”

          This is what God did at Christmas to fulfill his dream of making the jungle of sin into a beautiful garden.  But how does he do it?  Paul gives a clue in his letter to the Galatians, where after pouring out his heart over their sins, their religious debates, their jealousy, anger, selfishness and party spirit, he says, “I am in travail until Christ be formed in you.”

          CHRIST FORMED IN YOU!!!   It wasn’t enough that Christ was born in Bethlehem.  He must be born in you and me.  But what does this mean?  Well, in describing his own experience, Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

          Paul was still Paul, and had to make his decisions, develop his own talents, and face his own experiences.  But he had a guide and companion to lead him, help him learn to grow, and one day be able to say, “I have learned in whatsoever state I am to be content.”

          In my home town of Sylacauga, Alabama, I worked in a clothing store on Saturdays until long into the night.  The owner would never close as long as anyone else was on the street, and sometimes it was 1:00 o’clock Sunday morning before I got home.  I had to walk for a mile along dark streets which were quiet except for the imaginary noises and dogs barking.  I don’t mind now confessing my fear of what might be there in the dark, or when one of those dogs would attack.

          But sometimes my brother would get off work about the same time.  We walked home together.  I paid no attention to the barking dogs, nor did I hear the strange night noises.  I think this is a human illustration of what Paul was talking about .  Christ was with him in whatever he faced, and there was no darkness untouched by the light which Isaiah had said would come.

          Jesus Christ is our great high priest who faced every temptation we will ever face.  And he who withstood them will help us overcome them.  Together we walk when I am afraid in the night.  In suffering, his spirit soothes us until we recover.  “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, “ said Paul.  And we grow in the fruit of the Spirit when he is our friend.  When Charles Kingsley was asked by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “What is the secret of your beautiful life?” he answered, “I had a friend!” What is the secret of the beautiful lives we know?  No doubt they had a friend, Jesus Christ.

          Through Christ living in Paul, “I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me”, he grew and changed.  “When I was a child,” he told the Corinthians, “I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man I gave up childish ways” (1 Cor.13:11). He was always open to the leadership of the Spirit of God, so the fruit of the Spirit grew...love, joy, peace...patience, kindness, goodness...faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control  (Gal.5:22).  This saves a person from acting childish all his life, and enables him to open his life up to God’s beautification of the spirit, giving new life.  Too many times we act more like Peter Pan, “Nobody’s going to catch me and make me grow up.”

          In a book and a play, “I Remember Mama,” a young girl always wanted to drink coffee like her father.  He mixed some with milk and promised her that when she grew up he would give her pure coffee.  A few years passed and her selfishness about some things continued.  Then one Christmas she denied herself something so she could buy her mother a gift she really wanted.  The next morning at breakfast her father poured a cup of coffee and as he gave it to his teen-age daughter, he said, “For my grown-up daughter.”

          To grow up we have to learn to give up things for others.  Paul gave up childish ways, and thoughts, and reasoning, and became a man.  He learned this from Christ.  Zacchaeus showed how he matured quickly when he met Jesus because he was willing to give up the ways of his past life, to return what he had taken unjustly, and give to the poor.  In our selfishness we hold on to what we have, and are afraid to give up something even when what is offered is of far more value.  We hold on to the jungle life when the interpreter of God’s dream for us waits to give us a beautiful world.

          I remember how great I thought life was when I was young and free.  I had no great responsibilities.  Unmarried, I could come and go and enjoy life.  I looked at young couples struggling to get along on small salaries.   I saw couples with children and thought they were really tied down.  But one day I was married, a child was born, and I discovered what we had been missing.  Need I tell you about being a grandfather?  Everything worthwhile cost us something, but it doesn’t mean we don’t make good bargains by giving up something when we get something so much better.

          A flash of light breaks into our world and sometimes our whole world is changed.  But not when we are willing to live without responding to the calls to a higher life.  William Watson describes in a poem how prisoners heard from the warden that there was talk of spring outside.  But it meant nothing to them.  And he writes: “No rose will bloom on their grim encircling walls.  No flowers will break through their hard paving stones round which they tramp in exercise.  For them this tale of spring is but a legend empty of concern; and idle is the rumor of the rose.”

          The story of Christmas, the message that God sent his son into the world to redeem his people, and turn the jungle of sin into a beautiful garden filled with the fruit of the Spirit, will be empty of concern unless we believe it will bring a new life, something different from anything we have known.

          Bellingrath Gardens is the result of a dream and an interpreter.  Across the lake the shack, the unplanned chaos, the rust, worn-out bits of machinery, and wild grass, uncut, will continue unless somebody with a dream looks across the lake and says, “It can happen here, too.”

          No, it’s not enough that Christ was born over 1900 years ago in a far away land, it’s not enough that we should see and rejoice in what he has done in other lives, and down through the centuries.  We sing, read, and dream about what it was like when the shepherds and wise men and angels came to Bethlehem.  We celebrate it and rejoice in it.  But how does all this affect your life and mine today.  Has Jesus Christ really made a difference?  Or is our religion just moral and ethical precepts, spiritual values we would die for but haven’t the time or dedication to live for in our day?

          A young art student once said to his teacher, “If I could only put my dream on canvas.” Said his teacher, “Dream on canvas!  It is the ten thousand touches with your brush that you must learn, and then you can make your dream real.”

          It is the thousand touches of life with the spirit and wisdom of Christ that we learn to make our dreams come true.  Christ, the Master, says, “Dream on your need, dream on your problem, dream about how Christ can make your family life beautiful; dream on the thing that bothers you most, or you hope for, or the struggle you are having now, or what you can do for your church, and community.

          Christmas is the time for dreams.  Not the dreams that come in sleep and are forgotten before breakfast.  Christ is the time for dreams in the sense of wide-awake aspirations, goals, plans of action in the imagination.  It is the right time to dream because God has sent his interpreter, Jesus Christ.

How silently, how silently,
The wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of his heaven.
No ear may hear his coming,
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive him, still
The dear Christ enters in.
O holy Child of Bethlehem,
Descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin, and enter in,
Be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us,
Our Lord Emmanuel.

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