“Don’t you want to live forever?” Sintonay asked earnestly.
“Well, sure,” Daro replied with a shrug. “Who wouldn’t?”
“Then you must believe in God and follow His commands,” Sintonay urged. “Here, read this Bible.”
Daro took the book, but he wasn’t convinced. Those are nice words, he thought to himself as he walked away, but does God really have any power? Can He do what the spirits can’t?
Almost a week after his talk with Sintonay, Daro climbed the hill behind his village to check on his water buffalo. As he got close to where she was tied, he could sense that something was wrong. His buffalo was entirely too quiet. Sure enough, the buffalo had snagged its picket rope in some brush and had choked to death on the steep slope. Stricken with grief at the immense financial loss, Daro knelt down next to his buffalo and cried out, “God of Sintonay! If You are true, if the Bible really is Your word, show me now, and bring my water buffalo back to life! Please God!”
Opening his eyes, Daro looked down at his buffalo. Not a muscle stirred. Flies buzzed around the carcass. Again Daro prayed. “God! Please! If You and Your book are true, bring my water buffalo back to life!”
Five times Daro prayed, but the buffalo never showed even a flicker of returning life. Finally, despairing that God could really do anything to help him, Daro cut the picket rope and began rolling the carcass down the hill to where he could butcher it.
Suddenly the buffalo came to life and sprang to her feet! “Ah, I understand now, God!” Daro cried. “You didn’t bring my buffalo back to life while the rope was still around her throat. She would have just choked again!”
Daro’s prayer of joy was interrupted as the buffalo, filled with sudden rage, charged him. In terror, Daro sprang into the nearest tree, barely catching the lowest limb. Below him, the angry buffalo pawed the ground and tore at the trunk with her horns.
“God!” Daro cried again. “You brought my water buffalo back to life. Now please give her back her docile personality!” Even as he spoke, the fire seemed to go out of the water buffalo. Forgetting her rage, she began to calmly graze a few feet away.
“God of Sintonay!” Daro exclaimed in awe. “Truly You are God! You are more powerful than any person or any spirit. Your Bible must be the truth. God, I believe!”
