In the night before New Year’s Eve I was dreaming. I was traveling and had to get all my luggage from the hotel room, to the elevator, and then to the airport. There seemed to be no luggage cart available for me to use, but I started packing anyway. At first there was just my red leather suitcase to pack. But when I turned and looked behind me, I saw huge boxes filled with books. Clothes and haphazard items were strewn across the room. I packed a box, carried it to the elevator and set it down off to the side. I went back into my hotel room and to my surprise saw even more items to pack. I stuffed a smorgasbord of items into another huge cardboard box that had a collection of books in it already. Once I had packed that, I dragged the box to the elevator as well. To my horror, I discovered that my previously packed box had been taken. Who was taking my stuff?
I left box number two at the elevator and went back to the room, only to discover more stuff I had not previously seen, that needed to be packed up as well. I was feeling frustrated and totally overwhelmed by now. How would I even get all this stuff to the airport on time and would they allow me to fly with this much extra baggage? I started packing more stuff and again took it to the elevator. Yes, the previous box I had put there, was missing like the previous one! By now I was exhausted and just wanted to give up. The dream ended abruptly when I awoke.
On the morning of New Years Eve, my husband and I took time to listen to a devotional and prayers together. In the devotional the presenter talked about our past year and how we need to leave the baggage of the past year behind to start afresh. He prayed, "Holy Spirit, You make all things new. Awaken my heart to dream new dreams in this new year. I set aside any baggage or worries I have been carrying, releasing my heavy load, and finding home in Your presence." I started laughing and told my husband about the strange dream I had had the previous night. I explained to my husband the feeling of frustration in my dream, of having to pack up so many items, dragging them to the elevator, only finding on my return to the room more stuff, and then to my annoyance the previously packed boxes missing by the elevator.
All of a sudden my dream made sense to me. I was emptying my "baggage" from the old year's "room", and dumping it by the elevator to be taken away. It was as if though the suddenly missing baggage had been removed by someone who knew I would never be allowed to fly into a new year so heavily burdened. Having even more baggage each time I re-entered the room, pointed to how much I needed to get rid of, in order to enter the new year unencumbered.
Yes, I needed to leave all my heavy loads of the previous year at the feet of Jesus, in order to be free and light to enter a new beginning, a new year! So on New Year's Eve, I took time with my dear husband to drag our old year's baggage to the "elevator" of Jesus' feet and to receive forgiveness, healing, and hope. We prayed together, while dragging out all the loads of luggage, heavy experiences, and disappointments from 2023, and laying them at Jesus feet together. We cried, we repented, we forgave.
Our act of getting rid of this bad rubbish brought us freedom and hope. We went to bed before midnight because we didn't need to see the ball drop to know a new year had started. For us, the new year started when we laid all our burdens of the difficult past year at Jesus' feet!
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us." Hebrews 12:1 ESV
"Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with." James 5:16 MSG
God's blessings until next time!
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