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. But it was Faye’s lighthouse and I loved it! My dear friend passed away many years ago, but I have the picture Jim painted for me of Faye’s lighthouse hanging in my bedroom. When I look intently at the area surrounding the lighthouse I can see my friend playing, and her stories come alive once again, in the memories of my heart.
LIGHTHOUSES have been the background of mysteries for books, movies and romance for poems and songs. Stories of long lost loves have 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 any more, but still wanted because of the nostalgia that surrounds them. Still wanted because of the memories passed down for generations 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 my brother Lynn would sing it, along with the Gospel Hymns Quartet, I would cry! I don’t cry from sadness, I cry because I believe it is true. Lynn at the age of 28, was being tossed about in the sea of life. God healed him physically and spiritually, and gave him almost 43 more years, to bring glory and honor to Him, through the life he lived.
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 Jesus said; "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world!" John 9:5 WOW! Jesus is our lighthouse of hope in this world of darkness. Only He can turn our despair into hope! Our hope is like an anchor. As the storms howl around us, Jesus our anchor, holds firm to us in this unseen world. Paul says that we are to cling to Jesus! "We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of our soul!" Hebrews 6:19a In other words; Our Christian hope is anchored in eternity! Lynn found that to have the Son of God, gave him life! Does your anchor hold?
By Jane Ann Crenshaw (8/28/09) 8/8/14
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