Allow me introduce you to Theodore Conquest Moose, also known as Mystic Moose. This iconoclastic personality has lived in my imagination for almost 25 years and now has been formally and officially committed to print!
My primary purpose for writing Mystic MooseTales: Redefining Wildlife is to impart two things to the current generation: love for Jesus and authentic hunger for the historic supernatural God of the Bible. I chose the allegorical style because it lends itself to creativity in a wide range of expression and humor. C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkein, John Bunyan, Joel Chandler Harris, and others used allegory to impart life changing concepts and realities. I like that.
I wrote it from a ‘Southern’ perspective, for that is what I am, a child of the South. I have not focused on being unique or original, just honest. Honest expression has the potential to touch people in authentic life changing ways. C.S. Lewis wrote: “Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring two pence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.”
I sought to present these stories in a humorous fashion. Who can flourish without joy and humor? Not me. Nehemiah said that ‘the joy of the Lord is your strength.’ Joy and humor dilute the stress of life and give us the strength and resilience, not only to endure but to overcome. The Lord’s own joy personally imparted to us is our strength.
The gift of imagination fueled the expansion of successful human endeavor in every era. It is a wonderful tool when used in a redemptive visionary way. Paul the apostle prayed for the Ephesian church, that God might energize their sanctified imaginations: ‘that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened’. Jesus said ‘all things are possible to him that believes’. For us to experience those things we must exercise an imaginative faith. Here I have attempted to exercise my own imagination to inspire my readers to live lives of just such possibility and adventure.
God urged Elijah the prophet to use his imagination in a time of crisis. The Lord said to him:
“ ‘Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.’ So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, indeed a widow was there gathering sticks” (I Kings 17:8-10).
The Lord told Elijah to see something that he could not see with his physical eyes. He not only had to find the widow, but to convince her to trust God with him for their survival. By faith the prophet went to Zarephath, found the very woman, and convinced her to do what God wanted her to do. What a marvelous story.
As a child I sat at the feet of my great Aunt Louise as she read to me J. Calvin Reid’s book Bird Life in Wington. The book consisted of morality parables taken from the life of a community of birds as they spoke to one another and interacted in human ways. Joel Chandler Harris’ Uncle Remus Stories are another example of that kind of literature. Uncle Remus was a fictional black man that Harris used as a vehicle to tell stories depicting the foibles of human nature through the imagery of animals. Those tales revealed the importance of wisdom as a necessary tool for life. As Brother Bear and Brother Fox sought to eat Brother Rabbit, and as he sought to outwit both of them, the great themes of human nature such as life and death, greed and trickery, arrogance and humility, were identified and explored. And then there is Aesop’s Fables, ancient tales involving animals and the lessons one may glean from them.
In my imagination there exists a world where animals walk on two legs, demonstrate all the attributes of humans, and live and interact together with people. In just such a world Theodore Conquest ‘Mystic’ Moose lives and does his exploits. Many of these tales are based on events that have literally happened to flesh and blood men and women. These people I know. Some have happened to me. Other events originate from lives of historic Christians I don’t know but have read about or heard their testimonies. Some of his adventures are uniquely his own, yet the essence of them, or one could say the spirit of them, are ones any of us can have if we qualify.
“How does one qualify for such adventures?”
I am glad you asked that question. One qualifies by meeting Jesus Christ, by being born another time from heaven by the agency of the Spirit of God, and by being filled with the Holy Spirit. This experience is uniquely Christian.
Now is the time for you to see. Just like Elijah, use the eyes of your imagination and you will see that nothing is impossible to the man, the woman, the boy or girl who walks with God. God Himself is offering you a personal invitation to do so.
So, come enter the world of Theodore Moose and discover anew this realm of God and the possibilities He has for you in this life. The world is waiting for you, needs you, is even crying out for you! Come, for this is your day.
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