So, it’s been a full month now…my Dad went home to be with the Lord exactly a month ago. I referenced this on Sunday – at the 5th Sunday Singing – before leading this song.
I said that, in my Dad’s memory, my wife made something for me that’s really, really special.
So, “Let the Lower Lights be Burning…”
Most folks don’t know what this song is really about, so (besides sharing what my Mrs. made for me), I thought I’d also elaborate on why this song means a lot to me, and why it also meant something to my Dad.
The story behind it is as moving as the song itself. It was written in 1871 by Philip P. Bliss after hearing a sermon illustration by evangelist D. L. Moody.
Moody compared God to a great lighthouse—God’s light is always steady and sure. But along the shore, the “lower lights” were kept burning by ordinary people, guiding ships safely past rocks and into the harbor.
So that, if there were people struggling in the water, maybe adrift or overboard, maybe after a ship wreck or sinking, the people who lived in the town by that lighthouse would go out on the shore. Those people are not the true light, (see John 1:7-9), but they shine what light they can to direct people to safety all the same (Matt. 5:14-16).
Picture a community of people, with torches and lanterns, sharing the light. Bliss was so struck by that image that he turned it into a hymn. The song became a call for Christians to be those “lower lights”—to keep shining in the darkness so that others might find safe passage. It’s about faithfulness, duty, and love, even in quiet, ordinary ways.
That’s why this song meant so much to Dad, and why it means so much to me. He lived his life like one of those lower lights—steady, faithful, shining in ways that may not have made headlines, but that guided me, my family, his church family, and so many others toward safety and hope…the hope that is only found in Christ
Now, as I think of him, I hear those words in a new way. The Lord is still the great lighthouse. But Dad’s light, too, will keep burning—in the lives he touched, in the faith he passed down, and in the legacy he leaves behind…and in me and family.
If you cant tell, my wife’s gift to me holds flowers that adorned my Dad’s casket, and a guitar pick from his funeral (we offered guitar picks, in homage to his musical talent, as keep-sakes from the service).
So… “Let the lower lights be burning, send a gleam across the wave…”
Jake Roberts, preaches for the Lecompte Church of Christ in Lecompte, LA