Thursday, June 30, 2005

Staying in range


Even with an existing lighthouse at Baileys Harbor in Door County, Wisconsin back in 1869, numerous shoals at the harbor's entrance made navigation difficult during the day and almost impossible at night. To correct the situation, range lights were constructed.

Two lights were constructed 900 feet apart in a line that marked a safe route into the harbor through the shoals. The white structure above is the front range light. Slightly to the left of this light, nearly hidden now amidst the trees, sits the rear range light. Sailors were instructed to align the two lights one over the other, then head straight toward the pair of lights safely into the harbor.

The range lights were active navigational beacons for nearly 100 years until an automated directional light, part of which is shown in the foreground, was installed in 1970.

Making an analogy to the life of the church, believers in Jesus are instructed to be lights to the world. When the church aligns closely to the example of Jesus, the world gets a glimpse of the clear path that faith in Him provides. When other things distract the church, that clear path gets muddled. Here’s a sad example.

Blogwise agrees that it should be all about Jesus, not us.

And Anti-itch Meditation weighs in on churches that spend too much time thinking about sex and money.

And all of us … can be mirrors that brightly reflect the glory of the Lord. And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him and reflect his glory even more. 2 Corinthians 3:18

Click on photo to enlarge. Copyright 2005 James Jordan Posted by Hello

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just curious. How long is the Peruvian flag on top?

James said...

I'm going to go out on a limb here and venture to guess that the U.S. Coast Guard had no idea that they were co-opting the design of the flag of the sovereign nation of Peru when they put up the red and white visual marker on the directional light structure. I'll bet you a nickle they thought it was the flag of Uruguay.