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Writer's pictureLinda Odhner, with photos by Liz Kufs
Jul 220 min read

Excerpted Inspirations #137


[Prince Brandun, recently named the next king of Haefen, hopes that his friend Larke’s mother, Nara, can help him understand a dream.] “Larke tells me that you know much about dreams.” Nara released his hand. “Yes,” she confirmed. “The study of dreams has been passed down in my family from mother to daughter.” She paused a moment, then asked, “You have had a dream?” Brandun nodded. “This morning.” “Tell me,” she encouraged him softly. Brandun shifted on his bench, then began. “In the dream, a messenger came with a gift for me. It was a bowl, beautifully painted. As he handed me the bowl, he said, ‘In these,’ and then was gone. I looked into the bowl, and suddenly I was in the bowl, and so were some other people. “What people?” Nara questioned. “Kempe was there,” said Brandun, “and Larke. Also Lufu, a woman I met in Tamtun, and the bald- headed servant who was killed, and your husband, and Ladroc, the steward back at the castle, and Queen Aeldra, and even the wheelwright who took us in last night. There seemed to be many other people there, too, but I couldn’t tell who they were.” “I see,” said Nara. “And how did you feel about the people in the bowl with you?” “I felt how wonderful they all were,” said Brandun, “and what goodness they have brought to my life.” “And the messenger who brought the bowl?” Brandun thought for a moment. “He was very good and kind,” he remembered. “The goodness flowed out of him, like it had from two of the people we met in the Jahaziel Mountains.” “And the bowl was a gift?” “Yes.” “And so, it seems, were the things in the bowl,” Nara murmured, rubbing her chin. “Now, the first thing the messenger said was ‘In these’?” Brandun nodded. “It sounds like an answer to a question,” Nara noted. “Have you asked an important question recently, either out loud or in your own head?” Brandun thought a moment, and quickly remembered his burning question the night before as he was lying in bed. Where is the Light? Where are You? It felt so personal he was hesitant to tell Nara, but realized he must if he wanted help. “I was asking God something,” he said slowly. “I asked where He was.” “And the answer,” Nara continued for him, “was ‘in these.’” Brandun looked at her. “In the people in the bowl?” he asked. “In their goodness,” Nara clarified. “That’s what you noticed about them in the dream, isn’t it?” “So,” Brandun responded hesitantly, “that would mean God is in the goodness of all those people I know, and many other people that I don’t know.” He felt a tingle of hope, because it made sense. “Notice also,” Nara pointed out, “that you yourself were in the bowl, meaning God is also present in your own good virtues. So where is God? In the things that you love in others, and feel good about in yourself – bravery, loyalty, friendship, compassion, and much more. These things are God’s gifts, and God’s presence.” Nara smiled. “It is a beautiful message, Brandun.” “The Light is here,” said Brandun softly. “I just have to look for it differently.” Karin Alfelt Childs, The Temple of Wisdom (1997), pp. 193-195

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