A week ago on Saturday I woke up in the middle of the night from a vivid dream. I dream—or, rather, I remember dreaming—on a fairly regular basis, but this time I felt compelled to write the dream down before sliding back into sleep. This was not particularly easy since I also decided not to turn on any lights so that I wouldn’t wake up any more than I already was. My description, thankfully, was perfectly legible the next day!

There were two parts to the dream, but I’m only going to describe the first part. In my dream I was working my way through a cafeteria line, and I saw that a huge pile of beans was being served on each person’s plate, along with a skimpy salad. Beans are definitely not my favorite fruit, so I decided I would take a healthier portion of the salad with lots of fresh vegetables added.

But a young boy was serving the food with orders to only serve a certain amount of each item, and he followed his orders faithfully. He looked confused when I asked for a bit more salad, and I began to get frustrated when he refused. A friend of mine stepped in to help the boy, but she gave me neither more salad nor vegetables. What she did was cut a huge portion of watermelon and placed it on my plate with a smile. The watermelon wasn’t exactly what I wanted, and I can’t say it was what I needed. But in the dream I knew it was generous.

I’m not a person who looks for symbolism in every dream, and I also don’t spend time afterward examining my waking life for parallels. I’m too skeptical to believe that most of those instances are more than self-fulfilling prophecies, although I know that a good night’s sleep and even dreams can help us process events or issues that are going on in our lives. But I’ve also experienced too much to believe that God doesn’t use dreams and other intangible methods to remind us of who He is or teach us something about ourselves.

In other words, God can use whatever He wants to bring glory to Himself! And sometimes He even speaks to us in dreams. We just need to practice discernment, listen to the Holy Spirit, and use our brains as we experience the more mysterious ways that God may speak to us.

As far as my dream a week ago Saturday, I have seen parallels in certain important decisions and conversations I’ve been working through. And a verse I read in Proverbs last week very succinctly sums up what God has been reminding me: “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.” (Proverb 19:21)

Have you ever wanted salad, refused the beans, and gotten watermelon instead? The proverb I read was intellectually valuable in understanding my tendency to plan and my at-times-contradictory-but-honest desire for God’s purpose, but I’ve found that my dream helped add peace to that knowledge.

And I love that God doesn’t mind mixing up the way He interacts with His creation that He loves so much!