Hello! I’m Korah, and I’m a Coney. Shall I tell you about our family? First of all did you know the Bible says we are very clever people? And do you know why? It’s because we know the best places to build our homes!
We are only small, you see, and not very strong, so we build amongst the rocks and cliffs, even under very large boulders and in this way we are kept safe. The rain doesn’t soak us; the wind doesn’t blow us over; the sun doesn’t burn us; and we can easily hide when anyone chases us.
So we ARE rather clever, aren’t we?
I expect you are wondering how such little folk as us can climb cliffs safely, and scramble over slippery rocks. Let me tell you our secret - we have special feet which can stick to the cliffs and rocks so that we don’t fall.
Isn’t our Heavenly Father wonderful? He knew where we Conies needed to live, so He made us these special feet, and I’m so glad He did because we have such fun chasing each other over the rocks and up the cliffs. In fact we are a very happy group, but we do get rather noisy at times when we play, and the older ones tell us to make less noise when we whistle and scream and chatter to each other.
And talking of noise, I must tell you what happened the other day. It was so exciting.
We live around Mount Sinai, the Holy Mountain, and a few days ago I said to my sister, Katy, ‘Come on, I’ll race you to the top cave up the mountain.’
Katy looked up, and then turned to me and said ‘Huh! You think you are going to win, don’t you? Well, I’ll show you’ and off she ran.
It took me all my time to catch up with her!
Half-way up we had to stop to catch our breath, and we looked down to see all our friends watching to see who would win.
Katy’s friends were cheering for her, and mine were whistling and shouting for me to win. What a noise! But it was nothing compared to what happened later. Oh! no. But I must finish telling you about the race first.
I reached the cave, but only a second or two before Katy, and as we hung there, panting and gasping, we looked over the edge of the cave - and what a surprise we got! A man was sitting there, and I suppose he must have got a surprise too, suddenly seeing two pairs of eyes staring at him. Then he smiled. ‘Come in’ he said. ‘It’s nice to have company.’
So we climbed in, and made friends with him. He told us his name was Elijah, and we said our names were Korah and Katy Coney. We could see he was pleased to see us as he looked rather lonely and sad, and we found out why. Some wicked people were trying to kill him!
We were horrified and as we sat there wondering how we could help an amazing thing happened. God spoke! Yes, He spoke to Elijah, we heard Him distinctly. He asked Elijah why he was in the cave. Elijah answered that he was the only Prophet left in the land, and the people were even trying to kill him!
“Go outside” God said to him so Elijah stood at the entrance of the cave and we stood with him. Then a terrific wind came and hit the mountain, and rocks - huge rocks - began flying everywhere.
‘Quick’ I said to Katy. ‘Into the back of the cave’ and we ran as fast as our legs could carry us. Katy was so scared she was shaking. We had never seen such a ferocious wind before.
‘It will be all right’ I told her. ‘Our Father wont hurt us, or Elijah. Then the wind stopped, and we slowly crept to the cave entrance again as Elijah was still standing there.
‘You all right, Elijah?’ we asked.
‘Yes, I’m fine’ he said, and smiled at us. ‘Isn’t God’s Power amazing?’ he was saying when CRASH! an earthquake shook the mountain, and we both fell backwards and tumbled over each other. Even Elijah staggered back into the cave.
It was so noisy! The sound of the wind; rocks cracking and bouncing around; and now, part of the mountain splitting and moving!
Katy put her paws over her ears, but Elijah was listening very carefully to hear the Voice of God.
Then the earthquake ceased as suddenly as it had started, and we were just beginning to feel a little happier when WHOOSH! flames began shooting up all around. It seemed as if the whole mountain was on fire. Back we scuttled into the deepest part of the cave.
Katy and I were both a little bit scared by now - we don’t like fire, and this really was the fiercest we had ever seen. We looked at Elijah. There he was, standing quite calmly at the entrance, his head slightly to one side, listening.
‘Elijah!’ we shouted.
‘Ssh!’ he said, putting his fingers to his lips. ‘I’m listening for God’s Voice.’ He wasn’t in the least bit worried. He just smiled and waved for us to come to him. So we walked up to him and, as we stood beside him, he bent down and picked us both up.
‘Look at the glorious colours’ he whispered.
Being with Elijah we again felt safe, and could look out at the shooting flames and feel very brave. And Elijah was right! The colours were beautiful - red; yellow; orange; white; flashes of blue, all dancing and leaping in the most wonderful patterns. It was breathtaking, and we felt very disappointed when, again, it suddenly stopped.
‘Did you hear God’s Voice, Elijah?’ we asked after a while.
‘No’ he said, rather sadly as he put us down.
We walked back into the cave, and sat down thinking about all we had seen and heard. It was very quiet after all the noise, so we were all able to hear a tiny whisper calling ‘Elijah!’
Immediately Elijah jumped up, wrapped his face in his scarf, and went back to the entrance of the cave. We didn’t follow him as we knew it was God’s Voice, so we kept very quiet. But we did hear Elijah telling God again how hard he had worked for Him, but the people didn’t want to hear God’s Words, and had killed all the other Prophets until only he, Elijah, was left, and they wanted to kill him too.
We saw Elijah then nod his head as he listened to the quiet words of God’s reply, then he turned to us and said ‘Thank you for keeping me company, but now I must go and do God’s work. Take care as you go back down the mountain’ then he hugged us, and left.
‘Hurry up’ I called to Katy as she stood looking after Elijah. ‘You want to tell the others, don’t you?’ and I climbed down out of the cave.
When we reached the bottom we found that all our family and the rest of the group were fine. No-one had been hurt in the wind, the earthquake, or the fire. They had hidden in their homes deep amongst the rocks and in the caves.
So, you see, the Bible is right isn’t it when it says we are clever little people for knowing where to find the safest homes?
Elizabeth Aynsley ©

Proverbs 30 v. 26 and 1st Kings 19 vs. 7 - 15.