Mephibosheth In the summer of 2003, my marriage was beginning to fall apart. Things never had been very good, but at that point it was becoming apparent that it was time to call it quits. My husband had started talking about leaving, didn't come home at night, and it was obvious his heart was no longer in our marriage. As a mother of two girls, ages 4 & 8, this was a frightening time. I didn't know how we would deal with trying to survive on less than half of our family income, let alone what we were going to do without the man, the husband, the daddy, of our house. Shaken to the core, confused, frustrated, rejected, and devastated, I tried as best as I could to lean on God. A few months earlier, I had gotten my eyebrow pierced (yes, me! and I still love it, although rarely wear my eyebrow ring). I suppose it was some kind of statement toward my "impending independence". After all, short of an 8 1/2 month separation when I was 23, I had been with my husband since I was 19. We went to rock concerts often, and it was one thing we still really enjoyed doing together. I remember attending the X-Fest in Pittsburgh that year, eyeballing the piercing and tattoo parlors that they had set up right on the concert grounds. I was amused that these visibly intoxicated people were permanently marking their bodies at concerts. Back to a few months later.... back in the midst of a dying marriage.... back to learning to lean completely on God for all I needed, instead of the idol I had created for myself in my husband (Can you identify, ladies?)... I dreamed one night that I was back at that X-Fest. I saw people getting tattooed. I wanted to get a tattoo also. In my dream, I envisioned getting a brown heart tattoo on my left shoulder, and in my dream I desperately wanted to have something written in that heart that showed how I felt about God, something that epitomized my relationship with Him. I wanted that heart tattoo to show my unwavering loyalty to my Savior. I dreamed that the word "Mephibosheth" was tattooed on my shoulder in that heart. When I woke up, I could not shake that dream. What in the world was Mephibosheth? To be honest, I was afraid that the word/name Mephibosheth was a name for Satan like Beelzebub or something like that. I kid you not. All I knew is, I did not know who or what Mephibosheth was, or what it meant that I dreamed I would have it tattooed on my back! When I went to work, I asked everyone I knew (I work at a church-based preschool). Not one person knew who or what Mephibosheth was. After an all-day search, I found a father of one of my staff members who had the answer. Turned out that Mephibosheth was an Old Testament man, the lame son of Jonathan and grandson of the late King Saul. In 2 Samuel, David desired to find a descendent of Jonathan so that he could bless this descendent. The scripture that was told to me reads like this: When Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, he bowed down to pay him honor. David said, "Mephibosheth!" "Behold, your servant," he replied. "Don't be afraid," David said to him, "for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table." When I understood who Mephibosheth was, I REJOICED at what my dream said. Before this dream, I did not know who Mephibosheth was. There was no way I dreamed this on my own. I knew all at once, that God knew my heart. He knew I was broken (like Mephibosheth was lame). He knew that in the deepest part of my spirit, I desired above all else to serve my King (Behold, your servant). He promised to me in my heart that day that He would surely show me kindness, that He would restore all that I was "losing" and that He would always provide for me and my girls (I would always eat at His table). I had this dream confirmed the following Sunday at church. My pastor mentioned the "lame son of Jonathan, grandson of Saul". Coincidence? There is no such thing as coincidence where God is concerned. Praise the Lord! His promises are always true and I am testament to that! AMEN and AMEN! Back