Safety in the Light

A light for the world

by Janice Ross

Suitable for Whole School (Sec)

Aims

To explore the importance of lighthouses in the context of Jesus being called ‘a light for the world’.

Preparation and materials

• You will need the PowerPoint slides that accompany this assembly (Safety in the Light) and the means to display them.
• Have available a light of some sort, such as a torch, lamp or candle.
• More information about the Bell Rock Lighthouse is available at: http://www.bellrock.org.uk/

Assembly

1. Switch on the torch or lamp, or light the candle.
   
   Ask the students if they like being in the dark, or if they prefer to be in the light. Point out that many adults keep a light on during the night, to make them feel safer.
   
   Light can bring reassurance and comfort to us. It can show us what is out there, not visible because of the darkness. Light can banish our fears, but it can also serve as a warning.
   
   
2. Through the years, many sailors have trusted lights to keep them from danger and shipwreck.
   
   Show Slide 1.
   
   This is the lighthouse at Beachy Head, off the south coast of England, near Eastbourne.
   
   Show Slide 2.
   
   This is the Eddystone Lighthouse in Cornwall.
   
   
3. Show Slide 3.
   
   This is the Bell Rock Lighthouse, the oldest surviving rock lighthouse in the British Isles. For over 200 years, it has been sending out its beam to warn vessels of danger. It stands on a treacherous submerged reef about 11 miles off the east coast of Scotland, near Dundee.
   
   Before the lighthouse was built, the Bell Rock had claimed countless vessels. Fear of the rock was so strong among local sailors that it was said that even more disasters were caused by sailors trying to avoid the rock and grounding on other rocks instead.
   
   
4. Most lighthouses are situated on rocks or cliff heads right beside the coast, but the Bell Rock Lighthouse warns of a danger stretching far out to sea, so it had to be built some distance from land.
   
   It was a great feat of engineering that was undertaken by Robert Stevenson in the early 1800s. He designed and developed the Bell Rock Lighthouse, living alongside his men in the temporary wooden building that they built on the rock so that he could support them with their work. The rock was not a comfortable place to live, and the lighthouse was not an easy thing to build.
   
   
5. One writer said, ‘To build a tower high enough to carry a warning light and stable enough to house three men to watch it, on a rock 11 miles from land, and buried under 16 feet of water twice every 24 hours in a sea much liable to storms, was not a task to be lightly undertaken.’
   
   
6. The last lighthouse-keeper of the Bell Rock was a man called John Boath. He grew up in Dundee, where he worked in the jute mills. That was until he saw a piece on Blue Peter about lighthouses and decided that he’d like to try being a lighthouse-keeper.
   
   Soon after, he and his wife moved from Dundee to their first lighthouse, which was on the north-west coast of Scotland. In 1988, John became the lighthouse-keeper of the Bell Rock, which had a reputation as a lighthouse that could break even the toughest keepers. The men worked on a rota of four days on and four days off. To reach the lighthouse, they had to use a rope ladder from a boat. Inside, basic rooms were connected by ladders strapped to the walls. It was a tough life and many men resigned.
   
   All of the lighthouses in the UK are now automated, so there is far less need for human presence on them now.
   
   
7. Few of us find ourselves on the sea at night to appreciate these lighthouses, but all of us need light. As we heard before, light exposes what is there, brings reassurance and comfort, banishes our fears and can also act as a warning.
   
   Following Jesus’ birth, his parents Mary and Joseph took him to the Temple to be dedicated to God. At the Temple that day was an old man called Simeon. Simeon had felt that God prompted him to go to the Temple. He spent much time praying for his people, and had always believed that God was going to send a special light into the darkness of the world. Simeon was convinced that this special baby would enter the world before he died, but he was now an old man.
   
   When Simeon saw Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus at the Temple, he approached them. Then, something wonderful and unexpected happened. It was as though a light went on! Suddenly, Simeon knew that this baby was light that had come into the darkness. He took the baby in his arms and said some very special words over him. He called Jesus ‘a light for the world’.

Time for reflection

Later, when Jesus was an adult, he addressed a crowd of people and said, ‘I am the light of the world.’ Christians believe that Jesus is the light of the world today. They believe that he can guide us through even the toughest times, and that he gives us hope, safety and reassurance every day.

Let’s look again at the image of the Bell Rock Lighthouse and consider how reassuring this light must have been to so many sailors for over 200 years.

Now let’s reflect upon the reassurance that Jesus, a light for the world, has brought to millions of people for over 2,000 years.

Prayer
Dear God,
Thank you for people who took the time to build lighthouses to keep us safe at sea.
Thank you for sending Jesus as a light for the world.
Thank you that he can still light up the darkness, show us the way and keep us safe.
Amen.

Song/music

‘My lighthouse’ by Rend Collective, available at: https://youtu.be/reAlJKv7ptU (3.53 minutes long)