The sun was setting after a hot, sticky summer day, and I was cooling off in the swimming pool, floating on my back. I didn’t have my glasses on (naturally), but I could see some vague shapes flying above the water. Lazily I watched them swoop and dive against the sky.
Then I realized what they were. Bats! Ooh, yuck! I had two thoughts: Hide under the water, or Get into the house! It took a few minutes to see that they were totally uninterested in me: they wanted the flying insects that were also attracted by the cool water. Specifically, the mosquitoes.
But I was still done swimming for the night.
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Remembering this experience, and with Halloween approaching, I did a little research on bats.
In many cultures, bats are popularly associated with darkness, malevolence, witchcraft, vampires, and death. That seems a little harsh, considering what they do for us.
Bats are the only mammals naturally capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are present throughout the world, with the exception of extremely cold regions. Most bats eat insects: beetles, moths, mosquitoes, and more. One brown bat can eat up to 500 mosquito-sized insects in an hour. Multiply that by bat colonies which can have millions of bats!
Which made me think about mosquitoes. Consider this:
Mosquitoes are also found world-wide: they are in every land region except Antarctica and a few islands with polar or subpolar climates. Just like bats.
Most mosquito species are crepuscular (dawn or dusk) feeders. So are bats.
Bats are mentioned in the Bible. Leviticus 11:18 lists them among the unclean: birds, animals and insects that were not to be eaten. (I’m not sure why anyone would want to eat them!)
So it seems God knows what He is doing. Creatures that we fear and condemn have a purpose. I don’t think I will ever be BFFs with bats, but they are certainly welcome to eat all the mosquitoes in my neighborhood! I will be very grateful to them for it, and to the One who gave them the job!