“Why God Created Thunder” by Anonymous Teen
Why did God create thunder? If you were to ask a group of people if they liked thunder, most would say no. The loud roaring clash coupled with the blazing blue light in the sky often raises a fear in people that compares to no other. Animals too, birds probably hold their young in their soft comforting wings protecting them from the commotion they hope will pass. My own dog runs and hides under any heightened thing she could find, wherever that may be my desk or under my bed, she simply waits there for me hoping I'll come and rescue her. For animals, they may not know if it'll ever pass, but humans tend to know that after a stormy night they'll awaken to blue skies. Yet, Astraphobia, the fear of thunder, still fills their heart. One would assume that of the people who hate thunder the most would be children. Like animals they don't not know when the flash and crash in the sky will go away. When I was younger, my heart would always jump at the sound of thunder. I would always say that God must be mad. But 15 minutes down the road, another little girl would take this as a sign that God is not in fact mad but instead saving her.
Of the people who like thunder, if i were to make a rough estimation with no data, i would assume 50% like it because of nature, 40% would be people who like the sound of rain and thus associate it with thunder, and the rough 10% would be children. But why children?
What in the world would make me assume children? Wasn't I a child deeply afraid of thunder? Yes, I was, but I didn't use thunder as a way to cope. That girl 15 minutes down the road would pray heavily for thunder whenever her dad would come home drunk, raging through the house.
She would pray for thunder when she saw her mom run and hide in a closet crying for him not to find her. She would pray for thunder when her dad eventually found her instead of her mother, and unleash his drunken anger on her. Thunder never bothered her, it actually comforted her. It would quiet down her tears. It could quiet down the voices in her head. It would quiet down her fathers angry words. The loud bangs could never compare to the ones she heard at home and thus never troubled her. She liked thunder, it brought her peace, happiness, and a calm like no other. Even now as a 40 year old woman, she would look outside and smile at the sight of heavy rain and thunder. It calms something in her and quiets the chaotic noise of life that surrounds her.
In the end, children facing abuse tend to have different ways of coping with their situation both while currently facing it and after. Some might use school as an escape for their behavior, try to run away from their problems, or look to the sky hoping for a better place. This is not to say that if you see a child unfazed by thunder, there is something necessarily going on at home, they may simply like it. Yet, the next time thunder seizes our skies, a child could be beaming with joy. It could be their only time of peace and calm in their mind. Maybe that's why God created thunder.