The Ant and the Contact Lens
A true story by Josh and Karen Zarandona
Brenda was a young
woman who was invited to go rock climbing. Although she was very scared, 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 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 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 on it's back.
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."
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. Yes, I do love GOD. He is my
source of existence and my savior. He keeps me 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)