Dream #15 - January 10, 2025 - SUDDEN DARKNESS

In this dream, it was either a Friday late afternoon going into Erev Shabbat (eve of the Saturday Sabbath), or a Shabbat afternoon.  It wasn’t clear because the details didn’t line up for it to be clearly one day or the other.  It was warm enough to be wearing short sleeves without a jacket. My mother & I were standing on the sidewalk of a narrow traditional downtown street in a small unidentified town, with 1-2 story row buildings of brick and/or stucco, with old fashioned shops & storefront windows on the first floor.  The setting looked more like a southwestern town in the U.S., perhaps in Arizona, New Mexico, or a similar environment. 

My mother & I ended up in one of the storefronts, & it turned out to be a Messianic congregation that we had attended fairly regularly in the past, on the east coast. The congregation had recently relocated to this downtown area.  We were in the foyer/lobby (outer court) leading to the worship sanctuary, separated from the worship space by a set of white painted, double French doors. The foyer/lobby had the decor of a traditional looking bank, with mauve carpet, mahogany moldings, & a brass candelabra light fixture suspended from the middle of the ceiling, & cream-colored walls.  There was a general warm glow in the lobby.  The French doors to the sanctuary were right in front of us, directly opposite the front entrance to the building.  There was a polished mahogany circular pedestal table in the middle of this front foyer.  Mom & I were standing in the foyer and a man with his little girl walked in through the front entrance.  He wasn’t anyone I had seen before in waking life, but he was wearing a cowboy hat.  His little girl had blonde wavy hair. We asked them if they were there for the Shabbat worship service, acting almost like ushers/gatekeepers, as they were standing there looking like they were trying to figure things out, not sure if they walked into a Christian church or a Jewish synagogue. I explained to them that if they were looking for that specific congregation’s service, that this is it.  At this point, we were peering through the French doors & saw that they were getting ready to open the ark for the Torah, and start the Torah procession leading up to the Torah reading.  The man said, “Actually, I was just looking for a shop where I can buy candy, ‘cause my daughter has been saying she’s hungry & has been pestering me for candy”. As he was saying this, I glanced into the sanctuary & saw the Torah procession was underway, with people taking turns carrying & dancing with the Torah scroll, as if it was a Simchat Torah celebration (joy of Torah), but it wasn’t.  Assorted colorful wrapped candies were being thrown at the Torah as it was paraded around, as if during a bar mitzvah, but it wasn’t a bar mitzvah. I said to the man & his daughter, “See, look! There’s candy in there! They’re throwing candy at the Torah”. The little girl exclaimed “Ooo! Candy!” and ran into the sanctuary with her father running after her.  That’s what led them into the service.  

After this, my mom and I found our way back outside on a corner sidewalk of the narrow downtown street.  We walked across the street to a storefront that was on the corner that was similar in size and merchandise to the health food & supplement grocery in the historic downtown of my city, just without the New Age influence in the atmosphere. It sold specialty health items, herbal products, therapeutic & gourmet teas, specially crafted organic candies, natural bath & body products, as well as a variety of organic produce, free-range meats & natural grocery items. It seemed like an old-fashioned mercantile store.  The family that owned & operated it were plain, homespun, Biblically-grounded people with an old world grace.  The family included a young lady & young man who was her husband.  She was either the daughter or daughter-in-law of the older couple who owned the store.  When we came in, the young woman and her husband were stocking the shelves, and starting to shut down the cash register.  Mom & I had gone there looking for something healthy and wholesome to eat because  we had missed a meal & gone longer than we usually do without eating, and this was the only place that we could find wholesome, minimally processed foods/snacks that met our various food sensitivity & kosher needs.  It was one of the few places that sold a specific therapeutic tea that I needed.  We were trying to catch them before they closed, as I noticed the young lady was wearing a hair sleeve/kerchief head covering, which led me to conclude that they were a Sabbath-keeping family & business, but they didn’t appear to be linked to or participating with the worship service going on at the congregation across the street.  So I don’t know if it was actually Friday evening when Sabbath-keepers are shutting down but the congregation across the street was celebrating Shabbat prematurely, or if it was Saturday evening and this family business was delayed in their observance of the Sabbath. When we got into the store, we quickly found the items we needed, but when we got to the cash register to check out, we realized she was shutting down the system & the store was closing.  I said “Oh! Are we too late?” She said “Yes…sorry, but the Sabbath is getting ready to start in a couple of hours & we need to finish preparing. But you can put your items in that wall-mounted box & then come back at the end of the Sabbath to pay for it and pick it up” I thanked her but in my mind I was thinking “well, that’s not going to sustain us for right now, when we are really hungry”. 

As we were walking out to the store, back out to the sidewalk, we encountered 2 different groups of people – a young mom & dad with a little boy, and another family that had a gaggle of kids.  They were coming down the sidewalk, approaching the store. One of the families asked “Are they open?” I answered, “No, they were shutting down when we were leaving”. I started explaining to them that the store was closing a little earlier for the Sabbath & explained to them the concept of keeping Shabbat & how even some non-Jewish followers of Jesus keep the Sabbath as He also kept the Sabbath. At this point, it felt like late spring, after the time goes forward to Daylight Savings, or very early fall, before the time reverts back from Daylight Savings, and the sky had the level of light that we would see at about 6 or 6:30 in the evening.  There was still a warm but dreamy golden glow of daylight, enough to illuminate sections of buildings in gold, and cast long shadows (Golden Hour), but not yet dusk or twilight.  While we were on the sidewalk talking to these 2 families about the Hebraic foundations of faith in Jesus, the sky and everything suddenly went BLACK, as no lights were on. We started turning the flashlights on our phones for light.  It wasn’t a regular night sky & there was no transition, no dusk, no twilight.  It was almost as if light left the earth.  It wasn’t a solar eclipse, because even with that there would be a very dim light from the solar halo, & it would feel like we were under a shadow.  But this event felt as if the sky was a large domed movie screen & someone pulled the plug on it, and it went completely black – no stars, no moon.  When this happened, some of the buildings went black too, in terms of no electric light being seen through the windows, as if the power went out. There was just a general loss of light from the atmosphere.  Just blackness, then the sound of people panicking. Then the sky flickered back on briefly so that stars could be seen in a dark blue sky with streaks of a dim red glow low on the horizon.  The sky flicker was the same as when the power first goes out in the house during a storm, and the lights & appliances flicker off & on a couple of times in a matter of seconds before it goes out for good.  And just like that, the sky went black again.  When this happened, my mother started shouting “This is it! This is it! It’s time! This is the redemption! Let’s go!” and we started running across the street, toward the congregation’s entrance.  As we were running, we saw some weird flares or bursts of light in the black sky, in the section of sky that was over the congregation & adjacent buildings, then it stopped, and there was no longer any sign of activity in the congregational building.  

The families we had been talking to were still standing frozen in the same place where we had met them.  A knowledge settled on everyone that a darkness, including a spiritual demonic darkness, had settled over the land, “when no man can work” & that we needed to find shelter & take cover instead of standing in the street exposed to lawlessness.  Since there was no sign of activity at the congregation, we went back to the believer-owned health food store, since we were now in survival mode and they had real food, to see if they would let us in.  I tried the door, but it wasn’t locked & was actually slightly ajar.  I motioned for the 2 families to go in and then we went in and locked the door.  The owners were still somewhere inside the building, but it seemed they had retired to their living quarters, either in the very back of the store or upstairs suite.  One of the members of the shop-keeping family peeped out & saw us, but appeared to be okay with us being there & hunkering down.  My mother & I started discussing the significance of this celestial event, saying “You know what this means…19 more weeks, then the time will come!” Then I woke up.  

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Preliminary interpretation & themes:

1. Congregation of child-like joyful faith that attracts the incomplete (single parent & child) & those that don't have it all together vs. the wise family whose obedience has become legalistic & graceless.

2. Light leaving the earth = the presence of God being taken from the earth

3. No sign of activity in the congregational building after the light left: Those with the joy of the Spirit & simple child-like faith are those that have God's light, & are removed with the Light