Thunder Fish

The following is a read aloud story for March 2005. This is one of a series of stories especially written for Awana Clubs, home-schoolers, Sunday school classes, VBS, mission conferences, or just the fun of reading about children in a wild land called: “The Amazon Rain Forest”. Print them out. Collect them. E-mail them to others who have children and would like to get these stories. Use them for the glory of God! The Culina Madiha people, one of the many great Amazon Rain Forest tribes, have lived for centuries in a world of superstition and fear. Primitive peoples attempt to explain natural phenomenon, such as thunder and lightning, through their isolated world view. That is the case in our story for this month. Brilliantly educated scientists in our modern world sometimes fall into the same trap. The Big Bang. Mankind evolving from apes. We call these “theories”, but they are not based on actual fact and deny the existence of a Creator God. The Culina’s eyes are “hatching” and they are stepping out of centuries of superstitious ignorance to faith in God.

The old story teller, Douemi (Dough-way-MEE)
(Missionary/cultural observer with the Culina Madiha for many years)
Serving with New Tribes Mission, Sanford, Florida

March was the month of the heavy rains. The forest was dripping! The five Culina boys huddled together in the blade-like roots of a giant samauma tree and wished they had brought a dozen or more banana leaves to spread out over them like an umbrella. But in their fun at racing through the soggy forest searching for toads and frogs, they’d not been able to see the black clouds gathering and when the storm broke they were far from home and without the wide banana leaf umbrellas.
“Keep your eyes open for snakes! My frog is telling me that a snake in curled up near us!”, shouted Noba holding up a greenish-brown bug-eyed frog for everyone to see. His unkempt black hair was matted on his head by the hard rain and now several small leaves and chunks of tree dirt perched atop the ratty mess. He poked around looking for that snake he was sure was just inches from them and ready to bite!
VAROOOM! There was a blinding flash of light and then a deafening roar right over their heads. Lightning and thunder. The astonished boys dropped their catch of frogs and toads and closed in together in a tighter group with fear written on their faces.
“I’m scared,” cried little Zequeri (Zeh-keh-REE), the smallest of the five. And suddenly he squirmed out of the huddled group and dove into a hollowed log. It was scarsely big enough for him to shove the front half of his body in. And it was damp and dark.
“Zequeri!” Noba pleaded, “Come out! My frog says that is where the snake is laying!” The boys all laughed and took up the teasing and shouting at the half covered boy.
“I don’t care, I’m not going to let the Thunder Fish get me! Or the giant heron! I’m scared. I’m staying right in here until the Thunder Fish calms down!”
The other four boys huddled closer together looking at the small legs sticking out of the hollowed tree and each one wondered about the Thunder Fish. Was it real? The Old Ones said that thunder was caused by a giant fish in a great lake in the sky. When spirits or anything else bothered the Thunder Fish he would flap his tail and cause gigantic waves against the shore of the sky lake. The pounding of the waves was the loud thundering noise that you heard. At the same time a giant heron bird would be startled by the thunder and take flight…the rain drops on his wings were like light and flashed.
“The God’s Word Teachers say there is no Thunder Fish or Lightning Bird! Come out, Zequeri, before something worse…like a poisonous snake gets you!” Noba continued to plead with the small nearly naked boy.
“No! There is no snake in here! But that Thunder Fish will flap his tail again soon and scare another heron…I’m staying right here”.
The sudden rain storm had marched on and the thunder and lightning marched on with it. The trees were dripping, but the rain had stopped and a bright shaft of sunlight suddenly pierced down into their swampy playground. How quickly the storms pass and the sunshine comes! “Zequeri! Zequeri! Your Thunder Fish has swam far away! Come out! You need to go listen to Father God’s Word and not the teachings of the Old Ones. You are nearly old enough now to go to school like all of us!”
Slowly and carefully a small little dirty body wiggled its way out of the hollowed log and looked around at the increasing sunshine. And, then, to the surprise and astonishment of the boys, a long green snake slowly crawled out of the same hollowed log!
The frog had been right! But the five boys didn’t wait another minute…they ran like lightning!
How about you? Are you afraid of the thunder and lightning? Do you sometimes want to run and dive under your bed when a big roar of thunder crashes over your house? What do you think causes thunder and lightning? Or do you know it is just an explosive expansion of air heated by a lightning discharge? God the Creator has made some awesomely beautiful things. Have you ever stepped outside and watched an electrical storm? Boy, that is better than The Fourth of July! A great and very wise man named Job said, “The thunder of God’s power, who will not be astonished by that?” Thunder and lightning show us God’s awesome power. It shouts, “I AM IN CONTROL! I REIGN!”
Don’t accept manmade “theories” as the truth, when you can know the Creator through His Son Jesus Christ.