A little over two years ago, I had a dream involving flooding. In the dream, I awoke to have my attention drawn to a window that was open in my house, but the thing I noticed first, as my bed was positioned far away from the window, was that I could not see out of it.

As I approached the window, I noticed that I could not see my neighbor’s house or any of the other surroundings. What I also noticed was that my house seemed to be under water. The water was not clear, but a muddy, murky type. I couldn’t see anything out in the water, no fish or anything else. In the dream, my first concern was, “What would my granddaughter think or how would she react when she awoke. Would she freak out?”

It didn’t dawn on me till I was awake that in the dream, I was not panicky nor was I concerned for myself, but the person in the house with me. Another thing that caught my attention was that my house didn’t have any water damage.

As usual, I always relay my dreams to my mother who seems to be an expert of interpreting them. First, she asked me what color was the water. I told her muddy. She said that means trouble.

Next, she said because the water did not get into my house, it would not affect me. Now, that the Mississippi River is rising, that dream came back to me the other day.

Once again, I started thinking about it. I thought “could this be the dream I had more than two years ago?” Could it possibly mean that the location I live in will not be affected because the window was far off from my bed; or did it reveal to me that there would be a flood, but that my faith in the Lord will help me to sustain?

You know dreams and visions are not just an occurrence of today. In the Bible, dreams and visions were given to warn people of occurrences that would take place in the future. One particular person was Joseph, the dreamer. Not only was he a dreamer, but an interpreter. His interpretation of dreams saved his life one day. In the kingdom where he was imprisoned, the king had a dream that he could not interpret. He relied on the magicians and wise men to interpret his dream, but they could not. Because someone knew that Joseph could interpret dreams, he told the king about Joseph, which to make a long story short, Joseph interpreted the dream, the king adhered to the interpretation and all was well.

In the end, Joseph’s life was spared and was given a place of authority in the king’s palace. Even today, we should adhere to our dreams because dreams could be warnings of things that will occur soon or take place in the future. Not all dreams are of trouble.

Some people say they do not dream, but in reality, everyone has dreams. They dream, but when they awake, they do not remember the dreams. For some reason, I have always dreamed and been in tune with my dreams. Some come true and some leave me puzzled.

I’m not sure what position my life will take in how the water rises in my physical life, but I am reminded in my spiritual life every day since the rising of the river that I have a God who cares and that he cares for me. I find myself going on with life, not in a panicky state, but trusting and believing that God is still in control. This does not tell me to not use the common sense (first instinct) that God gave me.

It lets me know that my faith is stronger than my fears and that if it’s time to evacuate, then I will get my family out of harm’s way. As we wait to see what the Mighty Mississippi will do for our area, let us continue to pray. Pray that God will spare our lives — material things can always be replaced. Pray that the emotions of people are not stirred up so that they forget to pray — that is an act of Satan. And pray that something good comes out of this bad situation.

In time of trouble call upon a real God, a powerful God, a God who still has it under control. I’ve learned to be content.

Beverly Gibson is a Ferriday resident.