A Bad Fox Comes to Curious

A Bad Fox Comes to Curious

Somewhere in the world is a curious little forest. In the center of this curious little forest is a curious little meadow. In the center of this curious little meadow is a curious little pond. And right there in the center of Curious lives a little duck named Mikko.

One bright morning, Mikko woke up and stretched his feathery wings. “Good morning, God,” he said. He was very excited this morning, because on this day, the new storyteller would arrive! He said a special prayer for the storyteller, and swam out into the center of the curious little pond for his morning swim and read the Bible, just like every morning. But before he could even open his Bible, he heard a tiny, little voice calling him from the edge of the water.

“Mikko!” yelled Silo, the little field mouse, “come quickly!”
“Good morning, Silo! Do you want to go ask Kavi the Owl when the storyteller will get here?” asked Mikko as he stepped from the curious little pond. Silo’s whiskers twitched, his nose wiggled and his ears squirmed when he said, “We don’t have time to do that right now, Mikko! A fox is in the curious woods - a fox!”
“A fox? Really?” Asked Mikko.
“Yes, really! Mikko, we have to hide - have to! I hear it was making its way to the curious meadow!” Silo exclaimed with his tail darting from side to side. Mikko’s own tail feathers began to twitch a little.
“What do we need to hide for,” Mikko asked, “is this fox bad?”
“Quite bad,” Silo said matter-of-factly, “Mikko, that fox is bad news - bad news!” Mikko looked around the meadow. It still looked safe and peaceful, like every morning. But he now knew that something quite bad could be there now.
“I‘ve never met a fox before! What makes this one so bad, Silo?” He asked.
“Oh, well this fox is very bad, indeed,” Silo explained, “why, this fox would eat me in one bite - one bite!”
“Oh my!” Mikko said, his little duck feathers sticking out on end.
“And that’s not all - not all at all! This fox will make a hat out of your tail feathers - a hat!” Silo said.
“How did you know this bad fox is coming to the curious meadow?” Mikko asked.
“Oh, Bullfrog told me,” Silo said, nodding.
“How did Bullfrog learn about the bad fox?” Mikko asked.
“Little Birdie told Bullfrog, and then Bullfrog told me,” Silo explained.
“And they know that this fox is bad?”
“Mikko, everyone knows that this fox is bad - everyone,”

Now, Mikko didn’t know Everyone, but if Silo knew Everyone and Everyone knew about this fox, then now Mikko knew about this fox. So they left the curious pond to go hide. Soon, they met Bullfrog and Little Birdie who was talking in a small den of sticks they had just made to hide from the bad fox.

“Hello, Mikko,” chirped Little Birdie, “did you hear about the bad fox in Curious?”
“Yes, I did,” Mikko replied, “Everyone knows that this bad fox will make a hat out of my tail feathers! It will probably make soup out of my feet!”
Bullfrog croaked, “Oh, my! Oh, my! Oh, my! The bad fox will eat Silo and I in one bite each!”
Silo’s nose twitched. “We better go hide together or this bad fox will get us all - us all!”
“Let’s hide, let’s hide, let’s hide,” chimed in Bullfrog.
So Mikko, Silo, Bullfrog, and Little Birdie all walked toward the other side of the curious meadow, all talking about the horrible things the bad fox would and could do. They talked about the bad fox’s recipes for Bullfrog legs and Little Birdie pie, and they talked about the things the bad fox wanted to make with feathers from Mikko. They talked and wondered and walked so loudly that they didn’t even notice the red, fluffy tail sticking up out of the grass just behind them!

The fox jumped out of the grass and landed right in front of the four Curious animals with such a thud that Mikko was knocked down on his back. Bullfrog hopped into grass out of sight. Silo scurried out of the way, and Little Birdie flew back into a patch well out of the fox’s reach. And now Mikko was alone with the bad fox. The fox was so close that its whiskers almost tickled Mikko’s bill.

“Oh, please Fox,” cried Mikko, “please don’t make soup out of my feet or a hat with my feathers!”
The Fox leaned back, its ears pricked up by Mikko’s request.
“A hat out of your feathers?” The fox asked, “I would never think of such a thing! And who has ever heard of duck feet soup?!?”
“But Everyone said that you would,” Mikko answered, a little confused.
“And, who is Everyone?” the fox said, her tail slowly circling her feet quietly.
“I don’t know, but Silo knows Everyone. And Little Birdie told Bullfrog, who told Silo, who told me that there was a bad fox in Curious woods,” Mikko said as he was rising back up to his feet.
“Well, I can tell you three things,” the fox began, “One, I’m not a bad fox. Two, I was the only fox in Curious woods. And three, Everyone is not always the best choice when it comes to asking questions.”
“But, but, but… I thought we should ask when we don’t know about something,” Bullfrog said as he softly hopped back out of the grass.
“Well, you should,” replied the fox, “but you have to be careful who to ask. #Like a king from the Bible. He had a big decision to make, and there were very wise people that gave him some very good advice,”
Little Birdie fluttered back in to hear the fox, and Silo crept back out of the grass, asking, “Did he take the wise people’s advice, did he?”
“No, he asked some of his friends, instead. These friends gave him very bad advice, and the king made a big mess of things!”

“Wow,” Mikko said, “I guess we should have prayed about it before we listened to what Everyone was saying about you.”
Silo said, “Yeah, if we all ran away, we would have missed out on meeting you, and hearing a good story!”
Well, when Silo said that, Silo, Mikko, Bullfrog and Little Birdie looked at each other, and then said “You’re the storyteller!”

The fox smiled and replied, “Yes, I am. My name is Alima. It is nice to meet you!”
“Nice to meet you, too,” Mikko said.
“Yes, nice, nice, nice,” croaked Bullfrog.
“Lovely to meet you,” Silo said, “lovely.”
“I hope we can hear more of your wonderful stories soon,” chirped Little Birdie.
“Of course you can!” Alima exclaimed.

And so, the five of them traveled back toward the curious little pond that was in the center of the curious little meadow, that was in the center of the curious forest. And in the center of Curious, they all celebrated a new friend.



For Parents and Guardians:

For Further Storytelling: The story depicted in this story is found in 1 Kings Chapter 12.

At this point, King Rehoboam was a young man. Like so many teenagers and young people today, he decided that his own peers would have better understanding of truth and righteousness than those who had the experience and knowledge of the Lord. It is easy to toss this story directly at the young crowd (such as your teens right now!), but we all must be very careful in who we choose to accept advice from. After all, age doesn’t immediately give wisdom - especially when wisdom of the Holy Spirit is something sought after and gifted by God. Always consult the counsel of people that are putting God first in their lives - those that study the scriptures and seek the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. Don’t forget that any advice that seems to fly in the face of scripture should be held with a high degree of doubt. And, regardless of the age or time spent in scriptures, if you aren’t studying the Bible yourself and seeking the wisdom of the Lord, then you’ve displaced your dependency on the fallible. Wisdom comes from studying the scriptures and seeking the Heart of the Lord. The Holy Spirit loves to show us the heart of Jesus. Never forget to ask and seek for that wisdom.