In “God’s dreams for us” Fr. Tom McKenna reflects on a God who wants us to flourish.

Advent is a season of dreams: the peaceable Kingdom, exiles coming back home, the web of death pierced through, crooked roads made straight. These are images of Yahweh’s end time that issue a call, summoning us to go out and built those end time conditions.

The dreams drift through the readings: the great feast laid out on the glorious mountain; tears from all the suffering wiped away; verdant pastures, restful waters, right paths, light in the dark valleys, infusions of courage, the groaning table and the overflowing cup, goodness and kindness following right in my footsteps; Jesus’ healings and cures and especially his setting out of the great end time feast on Matthew’s mountain.

One way of taking in all this glory is to hear it as a call to action.

But there’s another angle to take on these dream scenes. They are portrayals of what it is the all-good God wants for you and me. And that is, the best, our full flourishing, ourselves taken to the max. “These are pictures of what I have in store for you,” says The Father, “and I deeply want you to enter them.”

This was brought home to me in a conversation with a woman who talked about the great difference in her wellbeing when she changed jobs.

In the first one, she couldn’t get a clear picture of how her supervisor viewed her. She thought she was carrying out all the responsibilities given her and doing them well. But from the beginning, there was no feedback from the boss, almost as if he didn’t notice her or wasn’t all that concerned about where she was going in the company. But then things moved further south when it became apparent that the opposite of trying put her on a track upwards, the boss was starting to look for any mistakes she might make, things on which she might correct her, excuses to eventually get rid of her. What a growing and heavy burden it was to have Mondays come around again.  So she quit.

In the next job, working under another set of supervisors, she began to experience just the opposite.  She began to catch another signal. “These people want me to succeed. These people are interested in my getting more skilled at the job. They’re doing things to actually help me advance. Not sitting there waiting for my first mistake, they’re expecting my improvement. They’re holding out further opportunity, opening up possibilities for me I never saw on my own. And not just for their own sakes (i.e., to make themselves look good), but genuinely they want good for me.”

Such a profound difference it makes when the one above me wants my betterment, development. The opposite of the “make one mistake” atmosphere, it’s the lightness and freedom of the “I want you to flourish” breathing space.

Back to the Advent scenes. The overflowing feast, the good health, the accompaniment in the dark valley, the food given in the wilderness: they’re all tokens of what God wants for us. They convey a God whose desire is the opposite of “I’m waiting for you to trip up,” and whose deepest wish is that we all come to that perfect feast, that we all prosper and be satisfied at our deepest levels.

To say it again, these dreams are portrayals of God’s intention for me – God wants my best. God’s greatest satisfaction is that I and all those around me would prosper, be the happiest, the best. And isn’t that a fine description of love itself, wanting the best for the other for the other’s sake? Doesn’t it depict the “I’m-on-you-side” character of God — or as someone has said, the ever faithful “no-matter-whatness” of The Lord?