I wrote this poem about lighthouses, but it also represents a faith in God to help light our way. When we grieve for loved ones lost, we often lose our way. Just as the seafaring mariner in this poem, he relied on God every bit as much as the lighthouse, even more so really. There was a time that I lost my faith in God when I saw how many bad things seem to happen to so many good people. I had to do a lot of soul searching, and find my guiding beacon, and God helped me to light my way, just as each of us have that guiding beacon from God and our loved ones every day, even when we're consumed in grief. I spent a lot of time out at sea while I was in the Navy, and when you're surrounded by the blackest of nights, you can easily lose your way, so I try to focus on keeping my eyes peeled. With every ADC we receive from a loved one we hold so dear to our hearts, we are being guided by a divine lighthouse, I can assure you. I'd like to share this guiding beacon with you, because its divine beam will find you on this prayer wave.

Guiding Beacon

A luminous cutting edge piercing midnight
Silently revolving on a lonesome tower
As if in its own orbit
Guiding ships, passing in the night
A smothering haze does conceal
Treacherous conditions obscured
Ahoy! That heavenly beacon is aglow
Calling to all on the high seas
Shining so bright, cutting through the darkest night
Revealing to seafaring mariners to beware
The coming shoal, where raging surges pound salty shores
Reaching through the eerie mist for just one glimpse
Before succumbing to incensed currents
Drowning in the deep blue sea
Unable to see just two inches in front of me
I pray to God to continue to light my way
And He does, extending His hand to a
Guiding beacon ablaze
So my faithful ship may journey onward
And not run aground

by~
Don Rogers Winslow