Here she is on a rock ledge, with hundreds of feet below her and hundreds of
feet above her. Of course, she looked and looked and looked, hoping it had
landed on the ledge, but it just wasn't there. She was far from home, her
sight now blurry. She was desperate and began to get upset, so she prayed
to the Lord to help her find it.
When she got to the top, a friend examined her eye and her clothing for the
lens, but there was no contact lens to be found. She sat down, despondent,
with her party, waiting for the rest to make the climb up the face of the
cliff. She looked out across range after range of mountains, thinking of
that Bible verse that says, "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout
the whole earth." She thought, "Lord, You can see all these mountains. You
know every stone and leaf, and You know exactly where my contact lens is.
Please help me."
Finally, they walked down the trail to the bottom. At the bottom there was
a new party of climbers just starting up the fact of the cliff. One of them
shouted out, "Hey, you guys! Anybody lose a contact lens?" Well, that
would be startling enough, but you know why the climber saw it? An ant was
moving slowly across the face of the rock, carrying it!
Brenda told me her father is a cartoonist. When she told him the incredible
story of the ant, the prayer, and the contact lens, he drew a picture of an
ant lugging that contact lens with the words, "Lord, I don't know why You
want me to carry this thing. I can't eat it, and it's awfully heavy. But
if this is what You want me to do, I'll carry it for You."
At the risk of being accused of being fatalistic, I think it would probably
do some of us good to occasionally say, "God, I don't know why you want me
to carry this load. I can see no good in it and it's awfully heavy. But
if you want me to carry it, I will."
"God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called."
Brenda was a young woman who was invited to go rock climbing. Although she
was scared to death, she went with her group to a tremendous granite cliff.
In spite of her fear, she put on the gear, took a hold on the rope, and
started up the face of that rock. Well, she got to the ledge where she
could take a breather. As she was hanging on there, the safety rope snapped
against Brenda's eye and knocked out her contact lens.