Is There Even A God?

This afternoon while I was practicing the piano my Luke came to me and looked very upset.  He showed me the back of his ear and said, "The mosquitoes bites are back."  Luke has been eaten alive all summer long, even through repellent, and the back of his ear seems like prime real estate for the pesky bug.  He must have been bitten again at soccer practice last night and the whole back side of his ear was swollen and red. 

After I told him how sorry I was that he had been bitten again he threw up his hands in the air and with tears shining in his eyes said, "I don't get it!  Is there even a God?"  He went on to say that he prayed he would not get any more mosquito bites and there on the back of his ear is the evidence that God didn't come through on that request.  Then  he climbed onto my lap and cried the bitter tears of betrayal.  And I felt like I could relate.

I really didn't know where to start to explain the complexities of prayers not answered in the manner you expect.  Luke isn't the first to have something crappy happen to him or look out and see crappy things and exclaim, "Is there even a God?"  He just seems like the one of the youngest to ask it! 

So I tried telling him that when he asks me for fruit snacks sometimes I say yes and sometimes I say no.  It doesn't mean I haven't heard him ask or failed to answer if I say no.  He wasn't buying it and his face looked scared and the look on his face said, "God doesn't want me to have fruit snacks either!"  As we walked upstairs to get the hydrocortizon Luke said, "Why does this life have to be so hard?"  The fruit snack analogy got me nowhere so I changed tactics and said that if things always went perfect that we would never be thankful because we have never experienced the bad.  He didn't get that either.  He thought he was just fine if the mosquitoes never bit him.  The image in my head, of the effectiveness of my arguments, was that of a plane spiraling to the earth.  I took his hands and told him that God loves him and hard things will help him become who God wants him to be.  He cried again. 

Then I told a lie. 

I told him that I had read somewhere that if you eat red or pink Starbursts that it makes mosquito bites stop itching.  He instantly brightened and he wolfed down a few and was happy.  If only pink and red Starbursts could repair my faith so easily!        

Maybe it wasn't a lie because he didn't complain of the bites itching after he ate them.  Ok, my conscience feels better.