What is this feeling I have?  It came to me again last night just before I closed my eyes.  The sounds outside the tent had made me sleepy, but then the feeling came again and my eyes wouldn’t close and my throat burned with thirst.

I kept imagining another land with palm trees and enough water for our herds.  I kept seeing this beautiful place and hearing the sound of children playing.  Sometimes I could even see their faces.  And not all are little, some are young men.  Some are beautiful women, wives for all those men.  Where is this place?  I must find out.

I have had these feelings for a long time.  Because of them, I talked my father and brothers to move from Ur to this place by the two rivers that meet.  Many people live here because there is much water for everyone.  

I thought after we moved here, the dreams would go away.  But they still keep coming.  What do they mean?

The people here talk about personal gods.  Everyone has their own god who helps them and even protects them.  They all have a special place where they light candles and sing songs to their god.  This is a new idea for me.  I don’t know why belief in a god would help them.

Tonight I will just relax and not think of any special lands.  I will pay attention to the rippling sounds of the river near my tent and let it put me to sleep.

The sleep felt good until I was awakened.  I listened but heard no sound.  Maybe the quiet was what woke me.   It was strange because I could not even hear the river.  How can that be?

Then I heard a voice “Abram, go out from your country and from your family and from your father’s house, into the land to which I will be your guide”

I wasn’t sure I had heard this right so I said “who are you and what did you say?”

The Voice told me I must leave my family and go to a place He would show me.  

I said I would go, but really didn’t think I would.  Who was it that spoke to me like that?  Why would I want to do what the voice said.

I tried to go back to sleep, but whether I was asleep or awake I don’t know because I just saw that same land I had been dreaming about and this time it was in color.  I never dream in color.   And that voice was even in my dream “Abram, go out from your country and from your family and from your father’s house, into the land to which I will be your guide”

What was all that?

In the morning, I sat by the fire and talked in my thoughts “Whoever you are, I can’t leave my father and my brother now.  Terah is an old man.  And my youngest brother has already died.  If I leave now, it will be too much for my dad.”  I said all these things out loud by the fire, not really knowing what I was doing.

Do I have a personal god too?  Does everyone?   Where is the land I keep dreaming about and who are all those people.