A few whys, but mostly thank you

Olivia, very much out of the blue, asked at dinner last night, "Why did God make fire-ants?"

Yes, why DID God make fire ants? They sting. They make little camouflaged huts in the brown grass of Florida and attack unsuspecting little feet or legs or whatever and bite bite bite! If you jump in water, they climb faster (up your legs) and they don't die in water. Where is one to escape their fury??

This brought me to think about other things I'd like to question the existence of. I'm sure God welcomes questions as long as we preface our questions with "not that I question your authority or anything, but..."

So, not that I question your authority or anything, but why did you make:

Spiders. EW! Just the thought of the word makes me cringe. I refuse to listen to the rebuttal so don't even try. We could've come up with something better to kill other bugs. Plus, they don't kill all of them anyway! And what's with the big butt ones?? AHHHH!

Slush. Snow is beautiful and rain is nice, but mixed?

Locusts. What's with the gross shell left behind?

Rhiovirus. How much more disgusting can you get with a cold that won't go away and more snot than you ever thought imaginable? Why does it stay in my throat and make me gag? I'd be much more efficient without this illness and more ready to serve. What's the deal?

Potty-training. Why can't babies be born knowing where to go and where not to go? The human body is fantastic, but why do we have to crap our pants for the first 3 years and the last few too?

Ok. That isn't a huge list or anything. Since I questioned some things, I'd also like to applaud some things.

Sun. Great job on the sun! I love being warm and it makes me tan. Things grow under it (that's awesome) and it warms our earth making us not need MidAmerican Energy. Thank you for the sun.

Water. Swimming, boating, drinking, cooking, floating, baths, showers, laundry, rain, oceans, ice (for my pop, not the weather kind), hot tubs. Thank you. I really love water.

Smelling. I think this is a very cool sense. I like the idea of it and I think its amazing how we connect smells with memory. That's really neat. Like, I always get out my pine candle at Christmas time (truthfully, a little before Thanksgiving), and this makes me think of Christmas, and family, being little, church, cookies, presents, snow, ornaments, pajamas, The Grinch, etc. Then I think about how we used to decorate our little house in Pomeroy in a ridiculous way. Tinsel, and obnoxious strings of puffy red things, yarn creations, ornaments, gold angels, silver other things that didn't match, big strings of lights, little lights, white lights, colored lights, 14 different stockings even though there were only five of us, candles, table covers, Chrismoose (a Christmas moose), etc. etc. etc. Martha Stewart would pass out! But we thought it was awesome! And it was.

Mannheim Steamroller. Thank you for them.

The human body. Very cool. Down to the smallest cell, everything has a purpose. Everything has a job. There are tiny things attacking invaders as we speak keeping us safe. Our heart beats on its own and we don't even think about it until it doesn't or its threatened. Also, thank you for teaching us how to do open heart surgery. Wow. They shut off the heart for 4-5 hours and surround it in ice, work on it, and then JUST TURN IT BACK ON!!!!! It works. It's unbelievable!!!!!!

Thank you for thunderstorms. They bring a feeling. And we get to tell the kids that God is bowling and got a strike! Or something like that. They are scary but not too scary so we get to just be excited. That's fun.

Animals. They are the funniest things ever. They are silly and make us laugh and they are cute and make us want to snuggle with them. They become our friends, or food (odd combo), and they can just plain keep us entertained.

Pumpkins. I'll eat anything pumpkin. Very good creation.

Finally, I'd like to applaud God on kids. Kids are THE coolest people on Earth. They see things for the way they are, in their plainest form, far reaching from the adult skewed perception, without our preconceived notions or the judgments we have from years ago. No, kids see beauty, and they see purpose. Except for in fire ants, and I'd have to agree.

Here's another thought to ponder from Olivia. "Mom, why can't we remember the future?" Now technically, this isn't a dumb question. Considering the scientists theories on time and space, we technically should be able to remember the future. Thoughts anyone?