Scripture tells us that God uses dreams to get his message across to us. We have example after example: in the Hebrew scriptures, Jacob seeing the ladder to heaven (Gen. 28:12-17), Solomon (I Kgs.3:5-15) asking God for wisdom and discernment, Daniel interpreting Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (Dan.2:26-45), and all the dreams associated with Joseph (son of Jacob/Israel and Rachel) in explaining how the Israelites ended up in Egypt (Gen.37—41). And then in this gospel passage, we see that, in the first years of Jesus’ life, Joseph (the husband of Mary, Jesus’ mother) received three dreams with messages concerning Jesus’ safety: flee to Egypt, return to Israel, but not to Judea. Had Joseph not paid attention to his dreams and responded appropriately, where would we be today? We know that scientists have found that we all dream every night, several times a night, in fact, and if we are sleep-deprived so that we cannot dream, we become sick. Yet, in our enlightened and technologically savvy culture, some folks seem to think that, in spite of biblical testimony, God’s use of dreams ended when the canon of scripture was closed, that imagining God using dreams to communicate with us is antiquated and naïve. Others among us realize, however, that there is no limit to the ways God uses to reach us, to transform us into the imago dei we were created to be, that dreams can be very fruitful in our formation process. Those who pursue dream work as a spiritual practice find that dreams have a purpose in our lives, that they come in the service of our health and wholeness, that as we learn to interpret the symbolic language of our dreams, we are drawn into the knowledge and love of God, into a deeper and more intimate relationship with the Holy One. Sometimes our dreams may be as clear and direct as those of the New Testament Joseph in our gospel, but more often, they come to us, as they did to the Old Testament Joseph, using symbols to speak to us. To begin to understand the messages of the Holy Dream Maker takes time and attention. First off, we have to remember our dreams, to capture them on paper before they disappear with the activity of the day. Only then can we focus on what the various people, places, and things that show up in our dreams have to tell us. Start a dream journal today and see where it leads.