He Bore Our Sufferings - A Dream on a Summer's Night

He Bore Our Sufferings July 20, 2019

It’s hard to remember how the dream began. I think it was that I began gazing at a world map on the internet and thinking about all the places, mainly exotic ones, which I was interested in visiting. My first thought was Hawaii. Ah, it looked lovely from satellite view. Then I remembered an even more beautiful island which I had learned of in geography lessons. I recalled that it was made of coral and the waters surrounding it were a gorgeous and unusual blue. The island (or rather, islands) I was thinking of were the Bahamas. However, I was mixed up, and I thought it was Barbados. I went to it on the map and was then slightly confused, because the waters around it were a normal blue and it didn’t have the strange coral look of the Bahamas.

Well, anyways, somehow the scenery changed, and I found myself on a strange staircase. I say the staircase was strange because rather than being made of wooden steps, the steps resembled those square-shaped pillows they put it couches. I don’t know how, but somehow I knew that if I went down the stairs I could go to Barbados, and if I went up the stairs I could go back where I came from. Of course I went down the stairs - after all, if I didn’t like Barbados, or whenever I was done with being there, I could just come back up the stairs and go back home. So I went down the stairs.

* Please note that some of the things I saw are likely not things that actually happen in Barbados. From the research I did after I woke up from this dream, most of it probably wouldn’t happen there. But that isn’t too important - such things would happen in other places in the world.*

At the bottom of the stairs was a doorway, which I went through. What I saw was beautiful. It was a sunny day, and so it was blue waves that were breaking on the warm sands, on which there were some kind of fruit trees. I had never seen such big, bright fruit (don’t ask me how a fruit tree grows in sand.) What a beautiful place! I was ready to jump into that water, but instead I decided to continue exploring.

What I saw next was much different from that beautiful view of the beach, however. It was ugly and cruel - I saw workers who were being pressed and mistreated by their master. I think they may have been slaves. Most of them were Africans, like many Barbadians are. I don’t remember exactly what type of work they were doing. They were wearing dirty and ripped clothing and each had a kerchief over his/her mouth to keep sand out. Most of them were also wearing bucket-type hats to shield from the sun. However, many of them still appeared to be suffering from heat exhaustion. One young woman in particular looked very sun-stricken.She was not African like the others; she appeared more Hispanic and her dark hair was cut pixie. Her face was an abnormal yellow color, probably from jaundice. She moved so slowly, almost mechanically, and looked like she would pass out at any time.

This scene disgusted me, and I decided that I would go back. This was a beautiful island, but the lives of many of the people who lived here seemed very far from beautiful. It was hideous! I had to leave. I ran away from the plantation, or whatever that had been, and past the beach, which seemed to have lost much of its glow, and I ran through that doorway. I then began to climb the stairs.

Something was different, though. I was able to climb up the staircase as far as I had been standing when I arrived, but I could not climb farther up! If I couldn't climb up I wold have no way out. I became frantic. I have to get out of this place! I thought. I even tried pulling on those couch-pillow stairs to see if maybe they needed a little nudge to get going up. It was useless. I was trapped on the little island of Barbados.

Just then I heard a voice - no, no, not a voice out loud, but it was a clear, unmistakable voice speaking to my heart, and I knew it was Him speaking. He said, “My daughter, why are you trying to get away?”

“It’s awful here. I don’t want to be here anymore!” I answered Him in my thoughts.

“But I want you here. I don’t enjoy watching these people suffer. I made them, you know. I have brought you here to help them. I don’t want you to run away from them - I want you to become like one of them. Humble yourself. I have work for you to do here, My child. Go, and I will show you the way.”

At that moment, shame filled my heart. How selfish I had been! He was right. I was proud. I didn’t try to help them. I didn’t care to bear in their sufferings. I just wanted to leave and go back to the place I was used to living, where I could live a much “richer” life. But sudden that “richer” life became poor in my eyes, and all I wanted was to go through the hunger and thirst and hard labor and beatings and sicknesses and poverty these people faced. I wanted to do it because His Son did it - for me.

So I ran down that “staircase” and through the doorway. When I came through I was not at the beach. I was in a different part of the island, and I was in the kitchen of some house or building. It smelled strange and was full of bugs. I was greeted by a lady, and immediately I sensed that she was a Christian. It turned out that all or most of the people in there were Christians - it was a building in which a Barbadian church met. I also sensed that this church was an underground church - that it was dangerous to be there. There was a girl there who was from Canada like I was. Her name was Sarah. I don’t have any friends named that, but as I recall her, she strongly resembled a girl who was on my team at homeschool soccer. Sarah and I helped the Christian woman cook a large meal (I seem to remember opening a drawer to get spoons and finding cockroaches in it).

The next thing I can remember is hearing that enemy soldiers were coming and we would have to hide. Sarah and I were to help hide the kids. A woman wrote instructions for us in a notebook of what to do when enemy soldiers were to come. Sarah and I took the notebook and we hid the kids under the building everyone else was hiding under. After a few minutes we were told everything was clear for the present.

After that, discussion began on what to do, as it was becoming more dangerous because of enemy soldiers in the area, and they were talking about having the teenagers and a few younger adults take the children to a safer place. It was at that time one of the guys called Sarah and I over. I think his name was Levi and he was also from Canada, come to help these people. He told us that we needed to learn to live in harder conditions; for example, we needed to start drinking less water and eating less, because although we had enough food there at that time, when we traveled we would not. Levi also warned us our sandals would wear out and we would get cuts and bruises on our feet.

I took my sandals off and walked around barefoot in the scorching, stony sand. Oouch! But I smiled. I was learning to bear in their sufferings. I don’t remember much about the children Sarah and I were put in charge of, but I recollect the feeling of love I had for them. I knew that when we began to go hungry and thirsty, any food or water Sarah and I found would be used to fill the children’s stomachs and quench their thirst before we would even think of filling ourselves.

Before we left on the journey, I woke up. That was disappointing. I know this dream is strange and inaccurately portrays life in Barbados. But that’s besides the point. This dream reminded me to stop focusing on myself and all my own little problems, and to go bear in the sufferings of others. It can be a little harder to imagine what this looks like in North America, but I think I’ve got a pretty good idea. It’s helping those people I’m tempted to avoid because they would be a burden to me. Like, hey, I just want to hang out with my friends. I don’t want to be bothered with that old lady who talks too much or that girl who doesn’t have any friends or that person who’s got cancer.

Bothered? Perhaps a better word would be blessed.

1 Corinthians 9:19-23 King James Version (KJV)

For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. And this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you.

When I woke up, I remembered Christ’s sacrifice, and I realized something. Christ was born to suffer for us, and now, through that sacrifice, we are born again to suffer for others. Our life on this earth is supposed to be suffering - if it’s not, we’re not living as Christ would have us to. But we don’t suffer forever. Someday we will be with God. That is our motivation - just like it was Christ’s.

Hebrews 12:1-2 King James Version (KJV)

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

He is calling us to go and suffer with the suffering, and to do all we can to ease their suffering. He is sending us to comfort them with the message of His salvation and the hope of His coming. And it doesn’t matter where you are - there are suffering people all around, for everyone suffers in some way. As for me, I plan to answer that call and go suffer. Will you suffer too? I shall close with these verses, as they fit the best with the dream I had.