Here is a story that I received from Cindy T. It was originally an account in Elizabeth Elliot's Keep a Quiet Heart. It is the story told to her by Brenda herself.
The Ant and the Contact Lens: a true story
Brenda was almost halfway to
the top of the tremendous granite cliff. She was standing on a ledge where
she was taking a breather during this, her first rock climb. As she rested
there, the safety rope snapped against her eye and knocked out her contact
lens. "Great", she thought. "Here I am on a rock ledge, hundreds
of feet from the bottom and hundreds of feet to the top of this cliff, and now
my sight is blurry."
She looked and looked, hoping that somehow it had landed on
the ledge. But it just wasn't there.
She felt the panic rising in her, so she began praying. She
prayed for calm, and she prayed that she may find her contact lens. When she
got to the top, a friend examined her eye and her clothing for the lens, but it
was not to be found. Although she was calm now that she was at the top, she was
saddened because she could not clearly see across the range of mountains. She
thought of the bible verse "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."
Later, when they had hiked down the trail to the bottom of
the cliff they met another party of climbers just starting up the face 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 a
twig on the face of the rock, carrying it!
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."
I think it would do all of us some good to 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.
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