Encouragement — Parable of the Ant

More Thoughts

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 a hold on the rope, and started up the face of that rock. As she was hanging on there, the safety rope snapped against Brenda's eye and knocked out one of her contact lens. Well, here she is on a rock ledge, with hundreds of feet below her and hundreds of feet above her. She looked and looked, hoping it had landed on the ledge, but it was not there. She was desperate and began to get upset, so she prayed to the Lord to help her 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, 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." 

A new party of climbers just starting up the face of the cliff. One of them shouted out, "Hey, anybody lose a contact lens?" Well, that would be startling enough, but do you know why the climber saw it? An ant was moving slowly across the face of the rock, carrying it!

Brenda father a cartoonist drew a picture of an ant lugging a contact lens with the words, "Lord, I don't know why you want me to carry this thing, 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 is awfully heavy. But, if you want me to carry it, I will."

"God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the one called."