The Light to Lead Us Home

A visit to a used book store uncovered a book lover's treasure (viz. a delightful volume published more than a quarter of a century ago and filled with thought-provoking anecdotes and capsules of wisdom). One tidbit of value was a story about an old preacher who, on foot, set out after the evening service to find his way along the edge of a dangerous cliff to the cottage where he was to spend the night. He had no lantern, and flashlights were then unknown. An old farmer, sensing the preacher's predicament, lighted a bundle of pine branches and handed it to the minister saying, "Take this, it will light your way home."

"But what if the wind blows it out?"

"It will see you home."

"But what if the rain extinguishes it?"

"It will see you home."

"But what if it burns out before I get there?"

"It will see you home."

And see him home it did. (Havner 9-10)

Long ago the Psalmist said, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path" (Psalm 119:105). There are times when theological smoke-screeners try to hide the great doctrine of the Bible in the clouds and darkness of unbelief, but they are unable to invert its torch or quench one ray of its light.

The Bible may seem old-fashioned to those who are ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth" (2 Timothy 3:7), yet man's little flashlights fail again and again, and the Bible keeps on glowing. The critics scorn it; cynics laugh at: change agents dilute it. But the Bible-the Word of God-burns brightly. And it will see us home!

Works Cited:

Havner, Vance. Seasonings. Old Tappan: Revell, 1970.