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 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 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 her 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 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 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 do, I'll carry it for You." 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.