“Let your light shine before men…” Matthew 5:16
“If you were to ask a Light Keeper what they do, they would tell you that they keep the light lit.” (The Worlds Lighthouse Encyclopedia)
What is it that a Light Keeper REALLY does? It’s more complicated than merely making sure that a light switch is in the “on” position, especially years ago when satellites and remote controls were a futuristic fantasy. A Light Keeper is responsible for making sure that the fog-penetrating, night-illuminating fire, blazing through the multi-prism lens (known as a Fresnel lens) of a lighthouse, never goes dim or snuffs out.
Sailors and seafarers have relied on the beacons of light for over 400 years to guide them through adverse weather and fog, and around hidden, vessel-destroying outcroppings and rocks. The majority of vessel disasters occur during the night, in damaging winds and storms or due to inadequate navigational equipment. Lighthouses help sailors to avoid the hidden dangers of the sea.
The house must be built to withstand impossible conditions. Most lighthouses are built on isolated islands or on treacherous reefs. It requires the shaping of tons of granite to hold the house steady. The Keeper of the light must live in the same conditions that the lighthouse has to withstand. Light Keepers must keep the flame burning 24-hours per day, 7 days per week. The lenses must be kept in perfect condition – undamaged and clean. The mechanism that rotates the light must never stop working. Should the light stop shining, boats, ships and barges would surely crash into the dangerous reefs and sink to the death of those aboard.
Jesus tells us that we are “the light of the world.” We are the Light Keepers for the Kingdom of God. We must build our house on granite, that we may withstand the damaging winds and deadly storms that pass through our lives. It requires constant maintenance through prayer and time in God’s Word. It is the light shining in our lives that guides those traveling with “inadequate navigational equipment” in the way they should go. It is in the way we live our lives, in love and mercy, that the unsaved will come to know that Jesus Christ is the only path to salvation. Keep your light shining that all may find that path.
If you were to be asked what it is that you do, as a Light Keeper for the Kingdom of God, would you be able to answer “I keep the Light lit!”?
