Why did God make mosquitos?

My three-1/2 year old boy asks a lot of "Why?" questions. This has been going on for the last year or so. So many "Why?" questions, that I sometimes find myself tuning them out, or answering them without the topic of the question even registering in my mind. But when Elias asked me, oh-so-sincerely "Mom, why did God make mosquitos?" I had to stop and think before I answered.

Elias had gotten a series of mosquito bites in the back yard a couple of weeks ago. A few on his arm, couple on his back, one on his eye-lid that swelled and turned kind of purple. Nasty mosquitos. Why are they here? We teach the kids about God's goodness, that God is Good, that all things he created are good. I love that my son has thought this logic through: if God has created all things, if all things He created are good...what in the world are mosquitos doing here?!

Why is there evil in the world? Why do bad and sad things happen? Why doesn't God stop all sin? Where is God in the pains of life? We talked about some of the obvious things like "Mosquitos provide food for the bats and the spiders and the birds"--which I happen to think is a really lame-o! answer, but I gave it anyway. Then we talked about Adam and Eve, how sin entered the world and is still here and causes death and decay and itchy, swollen mosquito bites. Then we talked about how every person has sin and how Jesus died on the cross as a sacrifice to take away our sin. And only through Jesus can we be accepted by God. Its pretty cool that my little boy is already asking and thinking through the big questions in life and I can point him to the Gospel to seek an answer.

Romans 8:19-21 "The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God."