A Moose of a Different Color

James was seventy-two years old when referred to hospice with end stage chronic airway obstruction and colon cancer. James was born and raised in Scioto County, Ohio. He served in the infantry during the Korean Conflict and for twenty-seven years following his army discharge he and his wife, Wanda, lived and worked in Cincinnati and then in Columbus, Ohio.

James managed a service station in Cincinnati and next worked for Lenox heating and air-conditioning in Columbus. But James and Wanda always considered the small country town of Otway, Ohio their home. They even maintained a house there so they could return on the weekends. When James became disabled in 1982, they retired to Otway.

James and Wanda loved, embraced and served their community and church. James served as deacon and Sunday school director for five local Baptist churches. They both enthusiastically participated in and organized numerous community fund raising projects.

But now for “the rest of the story”; James has one of the most unique testimonies of spiritual conversion I’ve ever heard. His life was not always characterized by a faith in God. Wanda shared, “James used to be a heavy drinker…he drank almost every day…He even carried a fifth of whisky in his lunch box…He drank so much he got down to one-hundred and twenty-seven pounds.” He’d promised his mother that he would change before she died in 1970, but he wouldn’t make good on his promise for another two years.

Now this is where the story gets really interesting. James began: “Me and my wife’s uncle always went to the Riverside Bar and Grill after work in Columbus. We would drink from about eleven in the evening to two o’clock in the morning; until the bar closed. There was a large moose head mounted on the wall behind the bar. One night, after about ten doubles, I looked up at the moose and its eyes looked like they were glaring back and forth at me. Then I heard the moose say to me, ‘This is your night. You better change your ways. It’s your last chance.’ It scared me to death so I called a taxi to take me home. I asked the driver if he drank and he said, ‘Yes’; so I gave him my six pack of beer and the fifth of whisky that I carried in my lunch box.”

Wanda continued, “As soon as he got home he told me, ‘I have to get saved!’ I thought he was losing his mind, but I knew something must have happened, because I didn’t think he would ever give away his last beer. He told me, ‘You have to take me to your mom’s and dad’s right away.’ It was about five o’clock in the morning by then. But we went and mom and dad prayed with him and he got saved that night.” James assured me, “That actually happened; February 26th, 1972. I just wasn’t smart enough back then to know that it wasn’t the moose that was talking to me, but the Holy Spirit.”

James’ conversion reminds me of the Biblical account of Balaam and his donkey (Numbers chapter 22). Balaam, against God’s direct orders, accepted a commission to curse God’s people, the Hebrews. While in route, riding on the back of his donkey, his donkey saw an angel blocking their path with a sword drawn in his hand. So the donkey refused to proceed. Balaam, unable to see the angel, struck the donkey, but the donkey brushed up against a wall and crushed Balaam’s foot and finally just lay down. Balaam struck the donkey again, and this is where this story gets really interesting: “Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and said to Balaam, ‘What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times…Am I not your donkey on which you have ridden, ever since I became yours.” Well, Balaam finally got the message. God allowed him to continue but Balaam’s heart and purposed changed as well as his outcome.

In retrospect, if God used a donkey to change the direction of Balaam’s life He could use a mounted moose head to change the direction and outcome of James’. It just goes to show, God surely “works in mysterious ways”. God, in his love, will use whatever it takes to get our attention, to redirect us from our path of self destruction. Hopefully we will be smart enough to realize that it is God speaking to us.