The Lighthouse on the Harbor

The lighthouse stands a sentinel strong,
Though battered by wind and wave.
It stands as a beacon to the countless throng,
Who seek refuge from the storms that rage.

Ships that sail in peril of storm,
See Her light through the foaming billows.
That threaten to send them battered and torn,
Into the shoals that make a wife a widow.

Some say: “Tear the old lighthouse down,”
“She’s full of rust, old and outdated.”
“Her paint is chipped; her tower not sound,”
Because by men her light is hated.

Her fresnel lens hand wrought with care,
Brightens and reflects the lamp within.
It pierces the darkness of night that is there.
A light of direction and hope again.

The keeper with his family dwells alone there.
He makes the tending of the lamp his care.
With gentle touch the lens he makes clean,
So neither spot nor grime corrupt the pure beam.

He sounds the horn in time of fog so white,
When searching eye cannot a light discern.
He sleeps not, working day and night,
Providing fuel for the lamp to burn.

See him now with furrowed brow and piercing eyes.
“Come to the harbor a refuge find,”
His heart from the lips wrings the cry.
“Come to the harbor; safety is thine.”

Families, like ships in storm, have found,
Her light to shine bright as the day.
As they upon the sea of life, heaven bound,
Seek a port wherein to dock and stay.

Her light is the gospel cutting through darkness and sin,
Reflecting the purity of the truth within.
Her keepers are ministers proclaiming the Word,
So that in storm and strife the truth is heard.

In her port the ships do lie,
Anchored row by row they stay.
Closely bound by love and covenant ties,
Moored, they rest against the quay.

May the keepers continue to fuel the flame
So that the light, in love, may shine so bright.
Loved by those led home again,
For whom the light dispelled the dark of night.

The fuel of her light she shares,
With other beacons on the sea.
Keepers guard the “Reformed” lens with care,
That both inward and outward it shines to those in need.

May she stand in the ages still to come,
Her beacon by truth guiding the way.
Where seeking souls content as one,
Together in harbor await the great day.