Eric's Dream

 •  3 min. read  •  grade level: 4
 
Memory Verse: “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat.” Matthew 7:1313Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: (Matthew 7:13)
Eric was on the ferry traveling from Newfoundland to Nova Scotia. His bed rocked back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Slowly he dropped off to sleep. Then he began to dream, and this is what he dreamed.
There was a man there, and oh, he could talk so nicely! He talked so nicely that you just loved to listen to him. My, what a nice man!
“Where are you going?” he asked.
“To Ontario,” Eric answered.
“Why that is just where I am going! What way are you going back?”
“I’m taking Highway— to Highway— over to Highway—.”
“Oh, I know a better way than that. You follow me and I’ll show you a really good way to go!”
So, in Eric’s dream, the ferry filly arrived at Sydney, Nova Scotia.
“Now come on along with me,” said the man. And Eric happily drove off behind him to take the “better way” home.
Soon Eric found himself on a “broad road,” a superhighway with cars whizzing past him. He seemed to be drawn along by some unseen force in the same direction with the other cars. It was a strange feeling, and he looked around at the faces of the drivers in the other cars around him. Each face had that same strange look as if they, too, were being drawn helplessly along by some unseen power.
Eric began to get frightened. Then a verse of Scripture came into his mind: “Broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat.” Matthew 7:1313Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: (Matthew 7:13).
Just then Eric saw his brother and another old Christian off to one side of the highway. They were scrambling along a narrow little dirt path and up a rugged little hill.
“That’s what I want!” thought Eric. “Wait!” he cried. “Wait!” And he tried to turn off the “broad road.” But it was a limited access highway and he could not get off even if he wanted to. How frightened he was! What could he do?
Slowly Eric turned around and he worked his way back to where he had first gotten onto the “broad road.” It was a long way back, and it was a difficult way this time, but it was the only way. But there he found the entrance to the narrow little path where he had seen his brother and the old Christian.
He got onto the narrow path and began to climb a long hill. It was a difficult climb and it took him a long time, but finally he reached the top.
Then Eric woke up. His dream had ended.
This was a true story of a man’s dream. But Eric had a deeper sense of the solemn position of those who travel the “broad road” and at the same time the blessedness of those who choose the “narrow way” which leads to life everlasting.
Dear reader, which road are you traveling? The Lord Jesus, the perfect Man, walked “the narrow way” down here, and He says to you today as He did of old, “Follow Me.”
When Eric woke up at the end of his dream, how glad he was to know that he was on the “narrow way,” a possessor of eternal life through having the Lord Jesus as his Saviour. If at the end of life’s road you wake up in eternity, which will it be for you—eternal life or eternal woe?
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16).
ML-11/18/1979