The Ant and the Contact Lens

     Brenda was a young woman who was invited to go rock climbing for the first time in her life.  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.  She managed to reach 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.

     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.  Far from home, her sight now very blurry, she was desperate and began to get upset, so she prayed for help to find it. When she got to the top, a friend examined her eye and her clothing for her 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. Finally, the group 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?"   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!