I don’t know why God made mosquitoes but He must have had a good reason. Apparently mosquitoes have been annoying people since the beginning of time and almost every tribe has a legend to explain how mosquitoes were created.
A long time ago there were two tribes who both wanted to live in the valley near a lake. Big Elk was the chief of the tribe that had average-sized warriors but Blue Crow was the chief of the other tribe who had giant warriors that were as tall as young trees. The two tribes were going to battle to see who could live in the valley by the lake. The tribe that lost the battle would have to move away and find another place to live.
Big Elk’s warriors were very brave in a fair fight but they knew if they fought against the giant warriors they would lose. No man could defeat the giant warriors in a fair fight. Big Elk decided because of the size of the warriors in Blue Crow’s tribe, he would have to cheat to win the battle. Big Elk set a trap so when the giant warriors came into the valley to fight, Big Elk’s warriors set fire to the grass and trees. The giant warriors were trapped and all of them died in the fire except Blue Crow.
“You did not fight fairly or bravely, so you can stay in the valley by the lake but you will never be happy. You hated us because we were giants, but I tell you that we can be the smallest creatures and we will come back and defeat you with our tiny spears.”
With his last words Blue Crow caught on fire and as he burned hundreds of little sparks flew up in the air and turned into mosquitoes that landed on Big Elk and his people and bit them and made them bleed.
Every night when Big Elk and his people built campfires, the mosquitoes would come and bite them. At last Big Elk and his people left the valley but the mosquitoes followed them.
At night when you build a campfire and you see the sparks fly up into the air, they will turn into mosquitoes and come back to wound you with their tiny spears.
Big Elk’s warriors could have fought bears or wolves, something big enough to see, but how can you fight something you can’t see until it wounds you?
So often in life it is the little things that cause us trouble. There is a verse that says, “It’s the little things that set us back. You can sit on a mountain, but not on a tack.”
In the Bible, Matthew 23:24 says people can swallow a camel and choke on a gnat.
We’ve all known people who can cope with big problems, big challenges, and yet some small thing will completely knock them off their feet.
I know a lady who has a rich, handsome husband. He is good to her, gives her everything she wants. He’s a good husband and a good father. Unfortunately, she never talks about how wonderful he is or how lucky she is to be his wife; she complains that while he watches TV at night he cracks his knuckles. He could have a thousand faults worse than cracking his knuckles but it is a small thing that bothers her so much she’ll get up and leave the room.
I suggested that while they watch TV she should try holding his hand like they did when they were dating. I haven’t heard from her since then so I don’t know if she followed my advice or if it worked.
A neighbor woman hit her husband over the head with a skillet and seriously hurt him. She was arrested for assault. She said for 20 years she’d listened to her husband slurp his soup and she just couldn’t take it anymore and she snapped and hit him with the skillet.
I think I would have just stopped serving him soup. It’s funny how the very things we find so cute and endearing in a person we are dating, are the very things that annoy us to death after we get married.
It’s also the little things that make us love someone. A man told me he fell in love with his girlfriend the day he was hanging up his coat and wool neck scarf and he dropped the scarf and his girlfriend picked up his scarf and held it against her cheek and closed her eyes and smiled. She didn’t know he was watching but he said in that moment he saw her soft, gentle side and could picture her holding their children someday. They’ve been married thirty years and have four children. Little things can make our lives wonderful and happy or we can let little things, like mosquitoes, drive us crazy.
So, what’s bugging you?
Crying Wind is the author of Crying Wind and
My Searching Heart, When the Stars Danced, and Thunder in Our Hearts, Lightning in Our Veins. All her books are available from Indian Life. Check catalog on page 18.
