Wicks Trimmed? Lights Burning?

Hymn for today ~ "Let the Lower Lights Be Burning"

Philip P. Bliss, 1871



Brightly beams our Father's mercy
From his lighthouse evermore,
But to us he gives the keeping
Of the lights along the shore.
(refrain)


Dark the night of sin has settled, 
Loud the angry billows roar;
Eager eyes are watching, longing,
For the lights along the shore.
(Refrain)

Trim your feeble lamp, my brother;
Some poor sailor tempest tossed,
Trying now to make the harbor,
In the darkness may be lost.
 (Refrain)


(Refrain) Let the lower lights be burning,
Send a gleam across the wave!
Some poor fainting struggling seaman,
You may rescue, you may save.

This hymn was written by Philip Bliss well over 100 years ago. It was born out of inspiration he received from a sermon he heard while living in Chicago.  

This is a hymn I grew up singing, and it is as familiar to me as hymns like "Amazing Grace"  and  "Blessed Assurance".  I can sing it from memory, but I'm not sure when it was that I finally did some thinking about "lower lights" and what they might be.  I think we sing and repeat creeds, etc.,  without thinking much about what we're actually saying.  When's the last time you gave close scrutiny to the words of "The Lord's Prayer"  for instance.  How often 

have you,  as I have, said, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us"   without realizing you are asking God to forgive YOU for all of your sins (debts, trespasses, sins etc) to the same extent you are willing to forgive others?   That changes the entire prayer for me.  

The same applies to singing the words of this hymn - "let the lower lights be burning - send a gleam across the wave . . . "   What are lower lights anyway??!!

The lower lights are the shore lights.  The "big light" from the lighthouse itself is the one that gets all the credit for the safe arrival of the big ships into the harbor, but think about that kind of light.   


The HUGE Fresnel lens in the picture above is at Montauk Point Lighthouse on the eastern end of the South Fork of Long Island.   It's light can be seen shining out for several miles into the dark North Atlantic Ocean.  Sailors of old who approached it depended on that far-reaching shaft of light to let them know they were getting close to land.  That's as it should be, of course, but what happens when one approaches closer and closer to the shore on which a lighthouse stands?

The light doesn't "bend" to illuminate the path to the harbor, nor does it "travel" with the sailors to guide them all the way in.   Often, the land on which a lighthouse stands is rocky shoreline and there is danger that would be unseen beneath dark waters near the shoreline if it were not for the "lower lights" - those lights are the lights away from the lighthouse - lights that shine from our stores and windows and docks that light the way of the channel so the ship can find the "safe water"  - the safe passage.   Without these "lower lights",  the way is easily lost once one gets beneath the light of the lighthouse. 

We are to let the "Master" lightkeeper take care of the Lighthouse,  while we keep the "lower lights" burning and shining out in the darkness of the night!!   Just as a candle wick must be kept trimmed in order for the candle to light properly and stay lit without going out,  our lives must also be "trimmed" by the touch of the Master on them.

Scripture is full of references to "light" and to the "Light of the World, which is Jesus.   "Jesus is the Light of the World."  "The light shined in the darkness and the darkness comprehended it not."  "Let your light so shine before men that they see your good works, and glorify God."   There are vast numbers of individual references.  "Light" is an important part of scripture, and the entire season of Epiphany uses "light" as its symbol.   

Mt. Pisgah UMC in Alpharetta did a Christmas concert some years back and the finale was a beautiful work entitled "I Have Seen the Light".  The tenor who sang it had a very nice voice and the work was thrilling . . . I don't remember the entire text, but it read in part, 

"I have seen the Light shining in the darkness . . . "  That reminds me so much of seeing a lighthouse shining through the darkness.  I love especially the Montauk Point Lighthouse and I have a magnet on my refrigerator that I got there - - - it says, 

Montauk - "I Have Seen the Light" 


 I think one of the things I enjoy the most about Christmas decorations is the "light" and the hundreds of ways in which we use lights as symbols . . . candles in the Advent wreath,  on our tables, and mantels,  lights on the tree and in our windows . . . such wonderful reminders about the "Light" of our lives and the "Light" of the world, who is Jesus!!!  


Eventually,  I get around to asking myself, again and again, in fact, if I am a "lower light" . . . if I am a shining beam in anybody's life pointing to the Master Lightkeeper . . . providing illumination along a pathway that is safe for someone else to walk along their own journeys.  It's critical that we have the Lighthouse and the Master Lightkeeper, but "lower lights" have a job to do as well.   Is your wick trimmed?  Does your light shine out in the darkness?  Will anybody look at you or me and say to someone else, "I have seen the light shining in the darkness . . . "?? 

Prayer -  I thank you, Lord, for sending the Light of the world to illumine our darkness.  Help me to be a lower light for someone else who would otherwise be lost "at sea" trying hard to make harbor safely.  Trim me as I would trim a candle wick  - - - make me and mold me into a "candle" fit for use in your Kingdom.  Keep me watchful and looking through the darkness for the Light that is to come.  Amen