“Please, please, please tell me a story,” Lisa begged, putting on cute, puppy dog eyes. 
	“Oh Lisa,” Her father began, “It's already 9:30 and you have school tomorrow.”
	“It's 9:29. Besides, stories help me go asleep.”
	Lisa's dad hesitated but then agreed.“Only if you get to school on time tomorrow,” he said.
	“I will!” Lisa shouted.
	“Shh... Okay, close your eyes,” 
	“Why?” Lisa wondered.
	“To help you imagine, of course,” Her dad answered. 
	“Now, you are in an amazing land where there is no darkness. Where there are people who can fly, and four creatures who can see nearly everything.”
	“Eyes! All around!” Lisa shouted. In her mind, only two could be seen but there are thousand all around them.
	“Okay. So each one of these creatures is different. The first is like an ox, another like a lion, the next had a face like a human, and the forth like a soaring eagle.” 
	“Singing!” Lisa exclaimed, interrupting again. Her eyes flew open. “I love it. Thank you so much!”
	“Your welcome. Good night.”
	Lisa closed her eyes and quickly went to sleep.
	
	Lisa saw an amazing silver stream. She looked at the sky that had only one word to describe it: beautiful. An eagle landed beside her, and Lisa turned her to see the large bird. She climbed on the eagle's back and he flew off.
	“Wow...” whispered Lisa. This was better than what she had imagined.
	Lisa looked down and saw the stream again. It sparkled, and the eagle flew down close to it. Lisa cupped her hands and drank the water. It quenched her thirst immediately. This water was like no other Lisa had drank before. 
	When she jumped off the eagle's back she saw the creatures her dad had described. Suddenly, a Lamb appeared.
	Everyone bowed down, including Lisa, and then she heard a song. A song she was singing and everyone else was too. Lisa got up and danced. She danced with joy. Lisa knew the Lamb deserved all praise.
	“Lisa,” she heard the Lamb say. “I love you. You will meet me soon.”
	This land started slipping away.
	“No!” Lisa said.
	“Lisa... Lisa...” A voice said.
	“No, no,no,” she groaned, opening her eyes to see her dad waking her up.
	“You slept in,” he said.
	“Oh, sorry,” said Lisa, “I won't be late for school.” Then Lisa threw off her covers and stood up.
	“Ow!” she screamed falling back on her bed.
	“What's wrong?” her dad asked.
	“My stomach, it hurts.”
	“Well... I know Mom is busy, so you can't go to her house.”
	“Could I, well, go to your work and help you?” Lisa asked hopefully. 
	Her father thought for moment. “I guess so, but if you feel better you have to go to school.”
	“Okay!” said Lisa.
	Lisa's dad called her school to tell them she was sick.
	Then Lisa packed her lunch and got into their car. 
	Lisa smiled; she had never gone to her dad's work to help him. But her smile disappeared when she realized Sunday was coming.
	Lisa's parents got a divorced when Lisa was only eight months old. Lisa had no idea why, but she did know that she had to go to her mom's house on Sundays. Her dad went to a place, but Lisa didn't know where. Just a place Lisa's mom hated and was sure she didn't want Lisa going.
	Lisa's mom was lately being strict with Lisa. Lisa loved her mom, but it was harder to love her mother than her father. Her dad would always want to play in the water when summer came around, listen to music and even join in the Hokey Pokey with Lisa. Lisa laughed with her dad so much. Her mother, on the other hand, would always be talking on phone when Lisa got out of school or turning on the TV, so Lisa didn't bother her when she was bored. Lisa would give almost anything for a least a little fun with her mom. She sometimes even cried because of that. 
	The car stopped, Lisa got out, and she looked at One Way Inn, the hotel her dad worked at. 
	The manager was okay with Lisa helping as long as she didn't distract her father from his work.
	They went up to the seventh storey and walked to the room numbered 377. Lisa opened the locked door with the key. They walked in, and her dad started cleaning the messy room by tearing the blankets and sheets off the bed and putting them in the laundry basket. 
	Lisa opened a drawer and saw a book. She opened it to a random spot. It read: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!”
	Lisa gasped. The Lamb, like her dream? Slain, doesn't that mean killed?
	Lisa looked at the book again, skipping to a different paragraph. This one said: “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and power, for ever and ever!” Lisa read the next paragraph. “The four living creatures said, 'Amen,' and the elders fell down and worshiped.” Lisa turned to the page that was before the one she had just read from. She found a sentence that confused her just like the other ones. It read: “Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders.” This was what Lisa had seen in her dream!
	At that moment her dad said, “Lisa, please get the towels from the bathroom for me.”  
	“Okay,” said Lisa. “Someone left a book here.”
	“You can put it in the lost and found if you want,” her dad replied.
	Lisa grabbed the towels while thinking about what she had just read. Was the four living creatures the ones her dad had described? 
	Lisa didn't say anything about what she had just read. All she did was wonder, even though she had a feeling inside that said she should say something. 
	It's just a coincidence. She told her self, but she didn't believe it.
	“I had a dream about the story you told me,” said Lisa. “It was like heaven.”
	“Cool,” her dad answered, not really paying attention.
	“I think I'm ready to go back to school.”	
	“Good. You know where it is; you can walk there.”
	So Lisa walked out of the hotel and slowly went to school.
	All she could think about was what she had read. 
	Could it really be a coincidence? she thought. Or is it something else? Maybe, just maybe, that place is real! Maybe I'll go there again, and maybe I'll see the Lamb! Maybe...
	If it is a coincidence... but how can it be a coincidence? My dad told me a story. That's normal. I had a dream about it. That's Pretty normal. I find a book that has things that were in my dream. Not normal at all!
	Who is the Lamb? Lisa couldn't understand this! 
	Just then she stopped walking. She had nearly walked right into the school building. She was so lost in thought that she wasn't aware of her surroundings.
	Lisa walked into her school and opened the door to her classroom.
	“Where have you been?” asked Lisa's teacher, Mrs. Adams.
	“I had a stomach ache, I thought you knew,” Lisa replied.
	“Well, it's time for lunch.”
	Everyone got up and eagerly walked to the lunch.
	“Hi Kate! I had a weird dream last night,” Lisa said to one of her best friends.
	“Cool! What was it?” Kate asked.
	“It was about this awesome place; everyone was singing. It was amazing! The thing I didn't get was there was a Lamb, and He told me He loved me.”
	“Wow! That's so cool! The Lamb does love you Lisa! He's real!” Katie exclaimed with huge smile on her face.
	“Hey Lisa, come and play Apples to Apples with us,” Charlotte ordered. “We need one more person to make it fun.”
	Charlotte was bossy. It was true that she was the oldest 3rd grader there, but the problem was that she acted like she 12 years old. She tried to be like her older sister, who was in 7th grade. She was nice to Lisa, but Charlotte would not let “immature” girls, like Kate, be in her “cool club”.
	“Sorry, I don't really want to,” Lisa replied. 
	“But, well, no one else will.”
	“I guess so,” said Lisa, even though she had so many questions Kate could answer.
	Lisa sat down inside the “cool club”, and picked up five red cards. This was the one time Lisa had played Apples to Apples where she didn't laugh once. 
	Lisa looked over at Kate. She was searching for something in her backpack.
	“I'm so glad you decided to hang out with us, Lisa,” Charlotte said. “Can you believe there are some 3rd graders who are still playing house?”
	“Are you serious?” one of Charlotte's friends said.
	Suddenly, Lisa couldn't stand Charlotte. Everything had to be “mature” on else she would gossip about it.
	“Yes, I can believe it,” Lisa said, dropping her cards and walking away. 
	Then she started running to Kate. She had so many questions, and Kate had the answers!
	“Oh Lisa, you're done!” Kate said.
	“Yeah! I have so many questions!”
	“I can't answer all of them, but this can.” Kate handed Lisa a book. It was a small book, and when Lisa opened it she realized the words were tiny. She knew she couldn't read it, at least not by her self. She would ask her dad to help her. Lisa put the book in her backpack; she would have to be patient. 
	Lisa went home after school and asked her dad to help her. 
	That book changed Lisa's life, and she had joy deep in her heart. Later, she went back to the place she had dreamed about and stayed there forever.



	
	

A Dream With a Meaning, 6-8, p.1