Mosquito Bites

I was at a cottage this weekend past relaxing with family and just chilling and got a few mosquito bites. And you know, I realized something...

God put Mosquitoes on Earth to teach us about temptation and sin. I'm just sure of it.

Here's why...

Let's say that the mosquito is like the devil. Him trying to bite you, or biting you, is temptation, and that scratching that itchy bug bite is sin.

Let's work backwards.

You know how when you get a mosquito bite, you feel it and you see it and then you feel that itch? What then happens? You scratch it. Why? Because it feels... good! YES! It feels so good!

But what happens when you start scratching that pesky mosquito puncture? You want to scratch it more! And so you do. You keep scratching until it's this big red blotch on you and it's driving you crazy. The only reason you stop scratching is it because you remind yourself that if you continue scratching, you'll eventually scratch the skin off.

I think this is kind of like temptation and sin. You're tempted to scratch that little mosquito bite because something in your flesh is like "oooh, it's bugging me (no pun intended) and it will feel sooooo good! I'll just scratch it a little bit." Then, this little, mostly hidden mosquito bite you started scratching just a little bit, is this giant welt of a thing that's the size of a toonie. You suddenly have this giant red spot on you that drives you crazy. You can't stop thinking about how irritated and itchy it is, and if you don't put something on it (I recommend Aloe Vera lotion or Afterbite), you will scratch so long and so hard that you'll make yourself bleed.

Sin does this. You start by just doing it a little, "it won't hurt anyone," you say, and you just like "try it out" or something. Then, you realize how good sin feels to your flesh, and you keep going. You "just can't help it."

And then you get to the point when you look down (on your hand or your foot, let's say. STUPID foot bites!) and you see the mess you've created for yourself. All the sudden you have this giant, throbbing, red sore mass on you that people can see and tell that you've been scratching. All the sudden, what was a hidden guilty pleasure is this ugly, obvious spot on you that drives you crazy. How many times have we seen this happen in people's lives? If only if I'd put something on it and stopped myself from scratching it, it would've gone away in hurry! (the mosquito bite, that is) If only I'd been more diligent to protect myself from getting bitten by that mosquito in the first place!

You see, it all makes sense, doesn't it? Mosquitoes are here on earth to teach us to be careful about giving into temptation and falling into sin. It's not the temptation that's the sin. You can't always help being tempted (you can do things to put yourself in tempting situations though, and do things to help you not be tempted), but you can ask God for strength and help to fight off that temptation and keep away from falling into the trap of continually scratching and scratching and being stuck in that habit.

Think about it...