Why I Love Mosquitoes

My niece was with some neighbor kids, showing off our horse, trying to inform her friends all about our farm animals. She got on top of the fence, and patted the horse, then pointed to the horse's nose.
“K, guys,” she said, her big eyes shining, “see that really big nose hole there on the horse. Well, anyway, make sure you don't stick your finger up it because you'll get lots of really gross horse boogers on it."
It got me thinking that her extensive knowledge on this subject must have come from personal experience in the matter.

Then, at dinner, while she was eating her hot dog, she asked, “hot dogs are in the food group, right?”
I shrugged. “I guess so. But I think they should be in the junk food group.”
She looked at me and laughed. “No, silly. Hot dogs are in the meat food group. They’re also in the food pyramid, aren’t they?”
“You know about the food pyramid? Wow. Where did you learn about that, Preschool?”
“No, first grade.”
Gosh, kids are too smart for their own good.

Last one.

While I was playing on the trampoline, one of my nieces said, “I gots a mosquito bite. Want to see?”
She showed me the red bump, smiling the whole time as if it was a wonderful red jewel.
I made a face. “Ouch. I don’t like mosquito bites, they make me itchy.”
“I don’t itch dem.”
“You don’t?”
“Nope. I only itch it with my eyes. But sister itches hers with her fingers.”
“You itch them with your eyes?”
She nodded. “Yes. Look at it.” She traced the red bump lovingly. “It’s pretty cute.”
I shook my head. “Doesn’t look cute. Mean old mosquitoes. I hate them.”
She looked rather upset when I said this. “I don’t hate mosquitoes. I love dem mosquitoes.”
“Really? Why do you love mosquitoes?”
She smiled and laughed as if I was ignorant of some great knowledge. “Because Jesus made the mosquitoes.”
I looked at her dumbfounded. “Why do you think Jesus made the mosquitoes?”
“I don’t know, because he wanted to.”
After that, I stopped asking so many “stupid” questions, after all, Jesus made the mosquitoes. Who was I to hate the blood sucking monsters. Maybe he made them for a reason. Maybe our problems----the annoying little the 'mosquitoes' of life, that buzz in our ears, making us itchy uncomfortable, buzz into our life for a reason. Maybe as adults, we are not fully able to comprehend or understand the reasons why we have these ‘mosquitoes’ in our life. Maybe the only thing we can do is except that whatever 'swollen itchy bumps," we happen to acquire, are beautiful, because they are blessings in disguise. Wouldn't it be an awesome thing if we could learn love whatever comes into our lives; be it butterfly, mosquito, rude people, bad weather or stink bug days. Wouldn't it be a neat thing if we could just look at those little monsters and just say, I love them. Jesus knows best. Lessons from the young.