Baara's Dreams

Chapter 3

Terror was etched on her face. Sweat poured from her brow as she ran from the soldier carrying a sword bloodied with the evidence of the brutal murder of her family. Fire from her burning home barely illuminated her way through the night. She tripped on a root and began to fall into the darkness while fear choked out the scream trapped in her throat.

Suddenly the scene froze. Baara seemed to be watching the frozen action from both inside and outside the dream, detached from the high emotion that gripped the falling girl but with the fear and terror just below the surface of consciousness. A dazzling light illuminated one corner of the scene. A pointing finger protruded from the brilliance sending a shaft of light past the frozen scene until a circle of brightness revealed a figure previously cloaked in the darkness. In the spotlight, Baara saw a man on a horse riding in the direction of the fearful scene. The finger seemed to be drawing him toward the still scene with urgency. Baara recognized the man on the horse; it was Naaman. The finger belonged to Yahweh. The exposed finger of Yahweh was drawing the mounted warrior inexorably towards the frightened girl.

Suddenly the frozen action released the girl who continued her fall in the darkness. Once again Baara completely inhabited the body of the girl in the dream, but instead of being choked by fear or screaming in despair, the girl cried out, "Yahweh, my deliverer, save me from my enemies."

A peace flooded the dream even as the soldier roughly jerked the fallen girl from the ground, saying, "Come along, pretty one. Your fate will be different from that of your family. Before we're through with you, you may plead to join the others in death."

Even as the crudely veiled threat penetrated the girl's mind, fear did not return. She simply looked up as though waiting, assured her God had heard her cry. Her eyes searched the darkness expectantly. Her soul was at peace.

Then the dream scene shifted. Baara was with Maacah in the market. She carried baskets laden with food. They were standing before a pottery booth, and Maacah was admiring some well-made clay bowls. The man selling the bowls was telling her about buying them from an Israelite potter. Baara idly scanned the crowds in the market as her mistress dickered with the vendor. Unexpectedly, Baara's eyes met a pair of smiling but intense eyes in the face of a man who towered above the crowd. He had bronze skin, a long nose with a distinct curve halfway down, and an oblong face. But what held Baara mesmerized were the eyes. They were not the usual brown eyes common among the inhabitants of the land; rather, they were a vivid, intense blue. They were in deep-set sockets above distinctive cheekbones. Thick, curling lashes ringed the eyes, which were guarded by a pair of bristly, black eyebrows. When their eyes met, Baara was filled with a strange sense of recognition, but then the eyes disappeared into the crowd.

Suddenly Maacah was shaking Baara's arm, asking, "Have you fallen asleep on your feet, child? I finished my purchase and walked away only to find you were not with me. I returned to find you here as though in a trance."

When Baara awoke, the peace of the first dream was still with her, as was the haunting pair of eyes from the second. As she dressed quickly to face her mistress, the peace persisted. Baara knew her dream was an answer to her desperate prayer of the night before. In the dream, Yahweh had shown her that He had drawn Naaman to her rescue, even if Naaman himself did not recognize God's intervention.

If God could provide rescue from the soldier tormentors, Baara was sure He was with her here in Naaman's abode. She still had no answers concerning the death of her family, but she was now content to accept that God knew best and was still in control, even when tragedy struck. Yahweh had not chosen to explain why He rescued only her, but she now had the assurance that neither she nor her family suffered because of an unnamed sin of her father.