Brenda was a young women
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 hold on the rope,
and started up the face of that rock.
Well, she got to a 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.
Well, 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, hoping it
had landed on the ledge,
but it just wasn't there.
Here 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 to find it.
When she got to the top,
a friend examined her eye
and clothing for the lens,
but there was no contact lens to be
found. She sat down,
despondent, with the rest
of the party, waiting for the
rest of them to make it 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
One of them shouted out,
"Hey you guys!
Anybody loose 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 that 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."
