Sunday, January 4, 2015

an ant and a contact lens--a story that touched my heart!

 
 
My thoughts have been on a story that I heard today during church.  An elderly man went to the pulpit to share his testimony.  He shared the story of a young woman—I am not sure of her age but somewhere around late teens early 20’s.  I am not sure if it was his granddaughter—well, that really doesn’t matter because the most important thing is that I learned something from the story—something that truly touched my heart. 
Ok, back to the story… She was rock climbing and as she was almost to the stop of this cliff, her rope hit her in the eye and she lost her contact lens.  She needed her lens to see.  She said that she said a silent prayer that was something similar to ”Heavenly Father, you know every leaf that falls and every pebble on this mountain.  I know that you know where my contact lens is.  I need it.  I need it to see.  Please help me find it.  I cannot see without it.” 

She started back down the cliff when she came upon a group of climbers.  One of the climbers asked if she knew of anyone that lost their contact lens.  What?  Seriously??  He had been scaling the rock when he looked out in front of him and an ant was crawling across a rock with a contact lens upon its back.  Can you believe that?  That is too crazy!!
Her prayer was answered. 

She went home that evening and told her dad.  Her dad being a graphic artist drew a picture of an ant crawling across a rock.  He added the caption, “Father, I have no idea why you are asking me to carry this.  It does not taste good and it is heavy but since you asked me to carry it, I will carry it.” 
As I thought about my own life and some of the doubts that I have been having, I received a powerful witness that our Heavenly Father is there.  He understands what we are going through.   He knows are challenges.  He knows what makes us happy.  He knows us.  I truly felt it. 

Then,  I thought of my keys. Yes, my keys.  I lost my keys and I could not find them.  I prayed and I could not find them anywhere.  They were lost.  I prayed and prayed.  I searched and searched.  I could not find them.  Finally, already late for work, I found them.  Grumbling, I headed to work.  As I entered the freeway, there was an accident.  The thought came to mind, “didn’t you ask me to protect you first?” I had asked earlier in the morning for protection.   My prayers had been answered but He was protecting me first, delaying me so that I wouldn’t have been in the accident.  I forget how often our prayers are answered and most of the time, when I am not even realizing that they are being answered but they are.  He knows us.  He knows every leaf that falls, every pebble on a mountainside, every car on the freeway and most of all where every set of keys have been set.  He knows every heart that is ready to receive the gospel and every missionary that is serving.  He knows everything and everyone.  He knows exactly what is in our hearts and how we feel.  He hears our prayers even when it is locate a contact lens on the side of a mountain or a set of keys that have fallen behind a cabinet; He knows the heartaches that we feel and the failures that drive our hearts to become negative but through everything that we experience He is there for us…individually.  He loves us so much and all we have to do is be patient and listen and most of all, ask.

I don’t think that I have needed a testimony to be shared as much as I needed this one today.  I have thought about this elderly man’s powerful words all day long.  They have truly touched my heart.  I am so grateful that he acted on a prompting to share his beautiful testimony.  So grateful!!  My heart was touched in so many ways and it just created an amazing sense of peace that I have been feeling lately but needed to feel it even more today.  I am continuing to wake up spiritually and I am so grateful for it.  I am so grateful for these moments where my heart is blessed to have so much peace. 
Hmmm...just wanted to share today. 
~Michelle
*pictured borrows from here

2 comments:

Jess said...

Thank you for this amazing post. I needed to read these words today more than ever. I love this:)

¡Vieve! said...

That is really awesome! I wish I could see something like this in my life, to know that God looks out for me like he so clearly does for others!