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ADVENTURES WITH JESUS AT THE MALL OF AMERICA

Formerly entitled “Greg’s Christian Fiction Dream”

Dreamed 9/4/2016, a Sunday morning, at about 2 am.

Before sharing the dream, I will provide a bit of background. When I was enrolled in a writing course, over two decades ago, my professor commented on my story, “The Return of the Rood,” which is found in my book, Adventurer’s Horn.  She had said, that if my character was an angel that was acceptable, but that if it was actually Jesus, that was something that just was not done by contemporary writers. She followed that observation with several red exclamation points!!!!!!  Most of my short stories came from dreams like this one.  She had also warned me, very firmly, that dreams just aren’t this vivid, do not follow the essential points of writing or make sense in the real world.  I kept on using my dreams to write stories for her class, but never told her after that, that my stories were all from dreams. Here there is no guessing.  Jesus was plainly a character in the fantasy story in my dream. And to me at least, the dream was vivid, had a plot line, and made sense when I awoke.

Also, I should explain about the man named Greg as portrayed in the dream.  Greg is an old Christian friend who lives in Chanhassen, Minnesota.  We only call each other from time to time now days.  Years ago, when I lived closer to him, we would sometimes meet at the Mall of America, have coffee and talk about Jesus or share Christian teachings.  We would often spend the day there, with other Christian acquaintances, popping in to visit us, throughout the day.  We might take a break and go eat or see a movie, but while we would spend most of the day there, other friends would often stay for a short time or until a new person joined us.  When I emailed Greg a copy of this story, the next day after I had dreamed it, he called me on the phone, to let me know, how much he had enjoyed the story.

I sent Greg a hastily written version of the dream. Since then I have edited the dream slightly. Here is the email of the dream, edited slightly, that I had sent Greg:

I just awoke from a dream about you Greg.  I am not going into detail.  Some of the detail is already disappearing anyway.  We were sitting at a white table at the Mall of America drinking coffee.

You said, “I brought you something to show you Wayne. I think I can write Christian fiction, too.   Here is my Christian fiction story.”

The scene changed and I was watching an animated presentation.  At the end of a C.S. Lewis type story, with little in the way of fantastic monsters, the general of an evil king, lost the battle, to Jesus’ army.  When the commander was literally the   last man standing, Jesus announced to his officers, “I am going to walk with this man alone and have a talk with him. Everyone else wait here. I will be fine.”

Jesus put His arm around the shoulders of the captured general, and walked with him for a few moments, in a direction opposite of the scene of the battle.  While they could not see the carnage of the battleground, behind them, they could still hear the caws and screes of crows, hawks and vultures that hopped and pecked among the bodies. Overhead, the bright blue summer sky, was covered with ponderously drifting white Conestoga clouds. From timer to time, fetid drafts of air, rank with the scents of soured blood and decaying flesh, temporarily overshadowed the gentle earthy smells of wildflowers and dew-spotted grass.

Both Jesus, and the venerable general, walked around and behind a lovely hillside that was sprinkled with beautiful clumps of flowers.   After remarking about the natural beauty of the hillside on this planet, and sharing words of praise for His Father who had created it, He said to the sad general, “Even though you did not win this war for your king, you fought with skill and honor.  You did not agree with your king and told him before the start of the campaign, that you did not agree with his reason for going to war, but promised him that you would command it with all of your ability. You did.”

Both paused as a droning bee appeared and crawled into a particularly beautiful pale blue flower.  Jesus waved his hand, and a vision of a castle, formerly owned by the evil king of the land, appeared in front of them. Jesus said, “Even though this is the castle of your old king, I can see in your heart, that you would really like Me to be your King.”  The general nodded, “I hardly know you, sir, but it feels as if you are my best friend, and that we have been great friends, all of my life.”

Jesus nodded and continued, “I am going to give you a novel opportunity, General.  If you agree, I will send you to a different world. A place called Earth where I once lived and died and came to life again.  There will be a building there that looks like this one.”

Jesus waved his hand again, and the vision of a small monastery, crafted of wood and stone, in a woodland clearing, appeared, replacing the former vision of the castle. “If you agree, General,” added Jesus, “I will send you there now, and inside there lives a man who is also a friend of mine.  He has a book.  Within its pages, and from his mentoring, you will learn more about Me as the days of your life wind to a gentle close. Would you like that?”

“I would,” said the man as he started smiling.  The former general appeared on a pathway in front of the old wood and stone monastery, which was ensconced in a campestral clearing, only a short walk away.  Above him a dim circle of whitish yellow peaked through a gray overcast sky.   Bright shimmers of red and yellow leaves whipped and crackled in the cool damp breeze. Tall conifer trees, draped in shrouds of forest green, seemed to whisper, at the General’s approach, as spiky boughs rattled in the wind.   He inhaled the fresh scent of pine needles, and felt the crumbling of dry brown oak leaves beneath his leather boots, as he quickened his pace along the forest lane.  Stands of mixed conifers and deciduous trees lined the sandy trail like vigilant sentinels.  General continued walking the path towards the goal as the scene faded.

Meanwhile, Jesus walked back to his gathered officer’s camp.  They brought a captured enemy soldier before Him.  The ranger was a short scruffy man, with wavy black hair, of about thirty, with a short-cropped dark brown beard, dressed in greenish-brown leather armor.  “He was just captured by one of our patrols,” announced the captain of the guards, “He said he was a scout for the evil king.”

“Just keep him under guard for now,” said Jesus, “I will talk with him later.”  He added, “By now the enemy king’s castle has been cleared; let us move our encampment there.”

Following a scene fade, Jesus was sitting in the throne room of the former king.  Stark and cold, the stone castle courtroom was empty, but people could be heard conversing in other rooms.  An officer appeared, bowed and asked, “Lord, are you ready to see the scout we captured this morning?”

Jesus replied, “Yes, send him in, but have his two guards, and yourself, stand present in the room.”

When they brought the man in front of King Jesus, the ranger approached the throne.  His guards forced him to kneel. Jesus said to the bound ranger, “You may rise.”  He motioned to the guards and said, “Unbind his wrists, then step back, and do not intervene unless I tell you to do so.”

Jesus said, “Man, you know that your former king no longer presides over this court.  What say you?”

“Isn’t that obvious?” replied the ranger. For an instant the diminutive ranger’s features softened, but to the trained eye, his quick black eyes still possessed the feral look of a giant woodland rat.  “One king is as good as another,” replied the ranger smoothly, “What must I do O’ King, to make amends and receive back my life and freedom?”

Jesus answered, “You must ask my pardon for your transgressions, both in life, and for those you committed in this war, while serving the former evil king.”

“That is my only option?” scornfully asked the wee disheveled ranger.

Jesus replied, “That, or you may personally duel me, for the right to sit on this throne.”

“Given the choice,” quipped the ranger with a wicked smile, “I choose the latter.”

Not a wise choice, man,” said Jesus as He sighed deeply.

Jesus motioned to His guards, “Give him back his short sword, his leather shield and his leather helm. He will not need his bow.”

“My Lord? Are you certain?” asked the captain of the guard fearfully.

Jesus exhaled softly, shook his head from side to side, and then gently but firmly answered, “Would I not have commanded otherwise, if that was not my desire?” Moments later the officer reappeared with the ranger’s military equipment.

Jesus arose fluidly from the throne, and grasped both a long sword, and a large white tower shield, that had mysteriously appeared, as if from out of the dusty castle’s air.  He asked the ranger, “Are you ready?”

The ranger spoke quickly, in a harsh dark unknown tongue, as a large wolf appeared and attacked Jesus.

Jesus bashed the leaping wolf with his shield, and then commanded, “Be gone creature!” as the vanquished wolf yelped, rolled across the flagstone floor, and vanished.

“Do you think, man,” asked the Lord. “that you are any stronger or deadlier, than your conjured wolf?”

“That remains to be seen, O’ king,” replied the ranger sarcastically.

Jesus calmly countered, “I will put down my shield, get down on one   knee, and close one eye.  You will still have no chance of winning this battle. Would you be willing to reconsider?”

The evil ranger laughed, threw back his head, and then exclaimed, “You are a fool!”

Jesus dropped his shield, snugged his crown down, knelt on one knee and then closed one eye.  When the ranger leaped forward, and plunged his sword at Jesus, the King parried the thrust, easily disarming his adversary.

“No,” replied Jesus sternly, “You are the fool!”  He then turned to the guards and shouted, “Hold him!” When the defeated ranger was bound once again, Jesus sat back down on the throne.  He said, “Fallen ranger, I sentence you to the place of fiery torment.” With a snap of his fingers Jesus added, “Be gone.” He continued, “While you are being tormented in Hell, you will, every single day, remember with horror, this opportunity that you so foolishly rejected.”

When the flames appeared around the ranger, he screamed, as the portal into the dark realm of fire and smoke engulfed him, and then winked out of existence.

The animated scene ended; Greg and I were sitting at a table like one we were at, in real life, many years ago, in the Mall of America, drinking coffee.  You showed me the book again, Greg, just like at the beginning of the dream. The book had a white cover. On the outside it looked like books I have written, but inside the text was hand-written calligraphy in glittery blue ink.

Greg asked, “So Wayne, what did you think of my story?”

I replied, “It was neat, Greg.  I liked it. I think though, if I would have written it, Greg, I would have skipped the Jesus on one knee sword fight.  After defeating the wolf, Jesus would simply have waved His hand again, and as the ominous dark and fiery portal appeared, said, ‘Be gone, fallen ranger.  While you are being tormented in Hell, you will, every single day, remember with horror, this wonderful and gracious opportunity, that you so foolishly and callously rejected.’”

End of dream

By the way, even though I said in the dream that I would have omitted the Jesus on one knee sword fight, I actually liked that scene!

The following material will be added to Kingdom Lessons 3: Flowers from Jesus. Both the audio version and the written version at my blog may differ slightly when Kingdom Lessons 3: Flowers from Jesus is actually published. My book will include a section containing spiritual observations concerning the dream where I elaborate on the bullet pointed items below.

• This is just a dream, but can you think of any ways that it mirrors our real life adventures with Jesus?
• Can you think of any ways that certain elements of the dream remind you of parables or passages of scripture found in the Bible?

 

Pop some popcorn.

Invite over a few friends

and share this adventure!