In my home I have a room that is decorated with decor and pictures of lighthouses, ships, and lanterns.  

           For years I have been fascinated with stories about lighthouse keepers, and sea captains.   

       Centered upon one wall is a picture painted by Norman Rockwell, it is entitled, Sea Captain.  I loved it when I saw it hanging in a gallery. I have studied it and with imagination I have created my own stories around it. I have found several themes within the picture, probably never imagined by Norman Rockwell.  Hope, trust, love, faith, courage, family, wisdom, listening, fatherhood, Godhood, are but a few I have tied to the picture and used in lessons. 

It is easy to  imagine the old captain telling the young lad about his adventures upon the sea. Perhaps he was teaching how to study the conditions of the ocean. Surely there were salty stories laced with tears of a shipwreck and losing some of his crew.  

     I believe some pictures can be worth a thousand words, and at least a thousand lessons or stories. Let me share one of my favorite stories of the sea. 

      “One night at sea, a captain saw what looked like the light of another ship heading toward him. He had his signal man blink to the other ship: “Change your course 10 degrees South.” The reply came back, “Change your course 10 degrees North.”  The ship’s captain answered,” I am a captain. Change your course South!” To which the reply came, “Well, I am a seaman first class. Change your course North.”  This so infuriated the captain, he signaled back, “I say change your course South. I am on a battleship!” To which the reply came back, “And I say change your course North. I am in a lighthouse.” Hope Publications, Kalamazoo, Michigan 

 

       Life can give us moments when the waves wash over us, and drowning worry takes us on a rough and sea sick course.  It is then we need to seek the eternal lighthouse keeper to guide us to safety and security. 

      We were on a family campout when my daughter Brooke, who was eleven years old at the time complained about a mysterious pain in her tummy. Knowing we were on vacation she didn’t want to spoil the fun for everyone. I tried to comfort her and gave her every remedy that I could think of, with no success.  She sought to convince us that she would be all right. But, call it Mother’s inspiration, parent’s intuition, prompting, we decided to pack up the family and head for the doctors. Prescriptions were given. Hours passed and Brooke wasn’t getting any better and grew steadily worse. We prayed again and again. I was worried even though the doctor didn’t seem concerned.  I suggested “Could it be her appendix?”  He looked at me, and shook his head, “No probably an infection, it will be gone in a few days.”  

I still had a lingering feeling that it was her appendix.  After a whole day and a very restless, painful night, we went to the hospital. We asked for another doctor’s opinion. This time the doctor listened.  Long story short, and a $4,000.00 surgery later... it was her appendix! Brooke’s appendix was not in the normal location, and had enlarged like a balloon, and within moments it ruptured within his hands, as he was removing it. He deemed it a ‘miracle’  that it hadn’t ruptured much earlier, threatening her life. Clearly our prayers had been heard, and we had listened. Gratefully this doctor listened as well.  The course was changed and a sweet life was spared.   

        Our Heavenly Father is a lighthouse to us all.  His desire is to bring us safely home. Thomas S. Monson says it in a way that brings me peace. 

        “Anxiously you ask, ‘Is there a way to safety? Can someone guide me? Is there an escape from threatened destruction?’ The answer is a resounding yes! I counsel you: Look to the lighthouse of the Lord. There is no fog so dense, no night so dark, no gale so strong, no mariner so lost but what its beacon light can rescue. It beckons through the storms of life. It calls, ‘This way to safety; this way to home.”    ~ Thomas S. Monson 

Enjoy Your Sabbath, 

Love Always,