Cedar Key Lighthouse, Florida

 

Tourlitis Lighthouse, Greece

 

Mauseturm Lighthouse, Germany

There are over 15,000 lighthouses in the world. If it were possible to visit every one of them, it would take over forty years seeing one a day. On every continent in the world, from North America to South America, Europe to Australia, Africa to Asia and even one in Antarctica, lighthouses stand guard to protect mariners from danger.  Virtually every country with large bodies of water has them near oceans, lakes, rivers and bays. There are over 100 along the Great Lakes alone.

From the first known lighthouse built in 240 B.C., men have built lighthouses on their shores. They have been constructed of a variety of materials such as wood, stone or metal in assorted shapes like round, square or multi-sided. Their heights too, range from towers atop single story houses such as the Cedar Key Light in Cedar Key, Florida, to the tallest light in Saudi Arabia that tops 400 feet.

With over 70 per cent of the earth’s surface covered in water, people all over the world share a universal need for direction, for help to travel safely through the numerous bodies of water. No wonder lighthouses are symbols to so many of protection and guidance.

We share the need for another light as well – that divine light that offers protection and guidance as we travel our lifetime journeys. No matter where we are, the light of God is available to all who seek it. He can turn our darkness into light if we let that light shine in to our lives.

 “If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.

 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.” Psalm 139:9-12