THE LIGHTHOUSE!
We have many books and calendars that depict the lighthouses of America. Many have become historical monuments and very few are still in operation. My friend Faye was raised in North Carolina where some of her family manned the Okracoke Lighthouse. As she would talk about it her eyes would light up and her voice would be excited. I couldn't help but be mesmerized by her excitement and wished I too could go there one day. I never did! However, my friend Iona Kay and her husband did. They purposely went to NC to see Faye's lighthouse.

Every time Jim would get a new lighthouse book I would quickly thumb through it and scour the index so I could locate the Okracoke Island where Faye's lighthouse stood. Finally, we found it! I couldn't help being disappointed! I always imagined it being stately and regal. Big and tall on the little island; beaming it's warning. Instead it was smaller than most and sort of coned shaped. It was Faye's lighthouse and I loved it. My dear friend passed away many years ago but the picture Jim painted for me, hangs in my bedroom; and her memory in my heart.

Lighthouses have been the scene of mysteries for books, movies, and romance for poems and songs. Stories of long lost love has been passed along the shorelines about the woman in white as she waits for her captain to return from sea. The reality is; a lighthouse was a necessary structure on a shore or coast with a powerful light at the top to guide ships. The base surrounding the lighthouse would become treacherous to any ship approaching and the Captain would look to the lighthouse and was able to turn away from danger.

Today the ships have navigational instruments and buoys which are floating objects moored in shallow water. The lighthouse is not necessary anymore, but still wanted because of the nostalgia that surrounds them. Still wanted because of the mysteries and the stories that cling to them. Still wanted because of what they have meant to the mariner's down through the ages.

Ronnie Hinson gave us one of the most beloved gospel songs ever written. It talks about the lighthouse on the hillside, that overlooks life's sea. he likens the lighthouse that guided ships to safety to a light that shines in darkness to guide a soul that is tossed about in the storms of life. He says; "If it wasn't for the lighthouse, my ship would be no more; And I thank God for the lighthouse. I owe my life to Him. For Jesus is the lighthouse, and from the rocks of sin; He has shone a light around me that I could clearly see; If it wasn't for the lighthouse, tell me, where would this ship be?" When I hear this song sung, I cry! Every time I listen to my brother Lynn singing the first verse with the Gospel Hymns Quartet coming in on the chorus; I cry! Lynn at the age of 28 was given healing and a second change. This last July he became 70 years old!

How many of you readers, were heading down the road of despair, due to illness and/or circumstances beyond your control? How many family members or friends do you know that were/or are living a life of despair? How many of you know what it is like to have been given a second chance due to the lighthouse that brought light into your darkness? How many of you met Jesus while on these roads and were pulled to safety?

"In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in darkness." John 1:4-5a Jesus said; "I am the light of the world, He that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." John 8:12 "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." John 9:5 "And this is the record, that God hath given, which is eternal life, and this life is in His son." 1 John 5:11 Jesus is the lighthouse of hope in our world of darkness. Only He can turn our despair into hope! "We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of our soul!" Hebrews 6:19a "He that has the Son has life; and he that does not have the Son of God does not have life."
1 John 5:12 Does your anchor hold? By Jane Ann Crenshaw 8/28/09