BitterSweetLife

There is no question that Aidan has dreams. He’ll be laying in his cradle or snoozing in his bouncer, and all of a sudden he’ll jerk or squeak or gurgle—like some of us do when we’re having a particularly vivid dream that contains a jump-scene.

The question that fascinates me is What could Aidan be dreaming about? How can there be any variety in his dreams? They would all be warm and dark. It seems like the only diversity could be from the various postures that Aidan tried out in the womb—but I’m told that a baby’s spatial sense is not especially well-developed.

At this point in his life, Aidan thinks that he is part of everything around him. There is the cradle, and there is the wall, and there is the fuzzy basketball that rattles, but Aidan doesn’t differentiate. Hey, it’s all here. He doesn’t distinguish clearly between objects and persons. Basically, all babies are born pantheists.

So what is this kid dreaming about?

The unfortunate thing is that I’ll never know. Not even Aidan will know. When I tell him about how he used to dream when he was a few weeks old, he’ll look at me with a puzzled expression. The subject matter of Aidan’s baby dreams will remain a mystery.

I can’t help but wonder if there is a parallel on a different level, though. The Bible compares the “travail” of this life to childbirth—painful while it lasts, but soon forgotten when the baby arrives. In the scheme of an 80-year life, the time a woman devotes to childbirth does not remain a focal point. Therefore, it would seem the Bible is implying that the towering significance and urgency that we attribute to our struggles down here may be exaggerated.

In light of eternity, when we are born into a timeless world, the “birth canal” that brought us there will not be the all-consuming focus that it once was. Our current lives on earth will seem like birthing pains before real life began.

If my understanding of all this is correct, Aidan’s dreams take on an intriguing new significance.

His sleep is temporarily disturbed by “events” from before his birth. When I reach heaven, will I experience similar moments of reverie? Will Aidan’s shadowy baby dreams be like my immortal “dreams” of earth?