The Ant and the Contact

I read this story elsewhere but wanted to share it with people on my blog.

Brenda, an amateur climber, was almost halfway to the top of a huge granite mountain. She had stopped for a breather on a tiny ledge, but as she rested there, the tension on the safety rope caused it to snap in her face, dislodging one of her contact lenses.
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Desperately she searched the small ledge in the hope that it had fallen close at hand. Brenda was at the point where it was almost as far back down as it was to the top. She didn't want to quit, but she needed her contacts to see clearly. After an unsuccessful search, Brenda decided to press on rather than waste all that effort already put into the climb.

Climbing was difficult with her impaired vision. Brenda fought panic and fear until she reached the top. There, a fellow climber searched her clothing and hair in hopes of finding the missing contact. As tough as the climb had been, going back down was equally frightening, so Brenda prayed.

Brenda thought about the scripture that said 'The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth.' The beauty she had expected to see at the top was instead blurry. 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.'

When she felt calm enough to begin the descent, Brenda continued to pray for her safety. Finally, on a trail near the bottom of the cliff they passed another party of climbers on the way up. One of the climbers shouted out, 'Hey, you guys! Anybody lose a contact lens?'

Brenda was stunned. How did they know she'd lost her contact lens? It turned out that the only reason they had spotted it was because it was seen moving slowly across a twig on the back of an ant. What are the odds that someone would have noticed an ant had it not been on that twig at the precise time they were passing?
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The story doesn't end there. Brenda's father is a cartoonist. When she told
him the incredible story of the ant, the prayer, and the contact lens, he drew a cartoon of an ant lugging that contact lens with the caption, '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.'
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This is a true story, and there are many lessons we can learn from this story. Perhaps chiefly among these lessons is this: We don't always, in fact we seldom, understand why we're stuck carrying the loads we are shouldered with. We can't see any potential for good, and often our burdens are heavy and heartbreaking. We can complain and ask God to remove the circumstance from our life, or we can accept our burden and say, "If You want me to carry this load Lord, I will."

Another lesson is that even when you don't sense the Lord moving in your life, He is. I can imagine that contact lens fluttering hundreds of feet down the side of that mountain only to land where it would never be found; but God saw where it went, and even before Brenda prayed, He sent that ant as an answer to her prayer. The ant couldn't eat that contact. It was heavy, it was awkward, but God used what was available to get the help to the person who needed it.

God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called. He is our source of existence and our Savior. He keeps us functioning each and every day. Without Him, I am nothing, but with Him...I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. (Phil. 4:13)

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