By Gary Andrews
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For the past several weeks I have had the song “The Lighthouse” on my mind. I researched the history of this song and found out it is not as old as I thought it would be and was written by Southern Gospel Music Great Ronnie Hinson. Part of “The Hinsons”, a tremendous gospel singing group that I grew up with and loved listening too, Ronnie wrote this song one night out of desperation. He was a teenager and his group needed new songs to perform when they would open shows for other well-known gospel groups.
Many of us go about our daily living looking for our own lighthouse to guide us safely home. Jesus is ultimately our Lighthouse and His brightness shines all around us if we are His child and have accepted Him as our Lord and Savior. He tells us in John 8:12, “…I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
As we go through this life on earth we are surrounded by people that we consider “lighthouses.”  When we are down and out and it seems that we are on a dead end street, we talk to someone that will lift us up and show us a way that we can overcome our difficulties. Many people have the wisdom that can help us in our time of need and we often hope that we can obtain their wisdom so we can help someone else in need.
On our journey through life we are always going to look for these people of wisdom. Some of them will never know how much they have helped you because their outlook on life is not of this world but in eternity with our Lord and Savior. When we realize this and know that our hope and future is not of this earth then we will also become a “lighthouse” to someone else.
In the song “The Lighthouse” Hinson wrote, “Everybody that lives around me says, tear that lighthouse down, the big ships don’t sail this way anymore, there’s no use of it standing around.” We are in a day and age when atheists and other non-believers are telling us there is no God and that when we die there is nowhere to go. Our hopes vanish when we allow them to lead us. The second part of that verse says, “Then my mind goes back to that stormy night, when just in time I saw the light, Yes, that light from that old lighthouse, that stands up there on the hill.”
Our hope is renewed when we see or visit with someone that can be that old “lighthouse” that can get us back on the road to Jesus, the ultimate Lighthouse.
Life is sometimes cruel but we have an everlasting hope in Jesus. “And I thank God for the Lighthouse, I owe my life to Him, For Jesus is the Lighthouse, from the rocks of sin. He has shone a light around me that I can clearly see, if it wasn’t for the Lighthouse, where would this ship be?”
Prayer: Thank you Jesus for being the lighthouse for me. I pray that your light will show through me that I might be a lighthouse to someone else. Amen.
(Suggested daily Bible readings: Sunday – Psalm 27:1-6; Monday – 1 John 1:5-7; Tuesday – Colossians 1:3-14; Wednesday – Judges 5:31; Thursday – Hebrews 1:1-4; Thursday – Job 38:19-20; Friday – Ephesians 5:8-16; Saturday – John 11:9-10.)
Gary Andrews is the author of Encouraging Words: 30-days in God’s Word. To obtain a copy go to his website www.gadevotionals.com