On June 28–29, 1927, the Bird of Paradise, a Fokker C-2  aircraft crewed by 1st Lt. Lester J. Maitland and 1st Lt. Albert F. Hegenberger, completed the first flight over the Pacific Ocean from California to Hawaii. (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_of_Paradise_(aircraft)) 

Just 5 weeks prior Charles Lindbergh had successfully completed the first trantlantic flight.  Yet, many aviators would probably tell you the flight of the “Bird of Paradise” was by far more significant from a navigational standpoint.  If you aren’t familiar with the tale (and its rather miraculous twists and turns) definitely read all about it at the Wikipedia link above.  The flight was intended partly to be a test of the use of radio beacons in flight navigation, as well as the experimental implementation of a number of other fancy tools new to the aviator’s arsenal.  Mind you, this was way before the advent of satellites, GPS, Google Maps, or Siri.

As the account goes, nearly every fancy tool failed and the radio beacons proved of minimal usefulness.  In fact, the pilots even claimed to have misplaced their in flight meals of thermos-stored soup, sandwiches, coffee, and chocolate bars!  Not long into the flight, the pilots were forced to resort to the ancient navigational techniques of dead reckoning (guess-timating your trajectory based upon last known fixed position, drift from wind and average airspeed), celestial observation (azimuth and altitude of the sun, and positions of stars and constellations), and measuring waves and ocean current patterns.  When too cloudy and rainy, they had to dip to 300 feet above the Pacific to read the wave patterns, and when darkness fell, had to raise to 10000 feet, above the clouds, to read the star positions.  Talk about 26 hours of nail-biting uncertainty!

At roughly 3:00 am Hawaii time, the original estimated arrival time at Wheeler Field in Oahu, still in the darkness of night, the pilots noticed a beam of light at 5 degrees to the left of the nose of the Bird of Paradise.  It was the Kilauea Point Lighthouse at Kauai, Hawaii’s northernmost island.  A light of salvation.  The pilots decided to circle the lighthouse for about two hours until daylight, at which point they were then able to navigate by sight to Oahu and their Wheeler Field destination.  Had they not sighted the Kilauea Light, they would very well have disappeared into the Pacific like others before, and like others after them.

Psalm 119:105, a well known passage in the Psalms, says “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.”  We often think of this Psalm in terms of wisdom-giving and direction-getting from God’s word – like “show me what decision to make now, Lord” or “help me not to mess up!”  And that’s not wrong, for surely God gives us such instruction through His Word.   But notice what the psalmist says just two verses later:

“I have suffered much; preserve my life, Lord, according to your word.   Accept, Lord, the willing praise of my mouth, and teach me your laws. Though I constantly take my life in my hands, I will not forget your law.”

“I have suffered much”, “preserve my life”, “though I constantly take my life in my hands” –  these are life and death things the Psalmist is talking about.  These are “circling the Kilauea Lighthouse in the black of night so I don’t crash in the ocean” kinds of prayers.

I don’t know what you are suffering, or have suffered, or how you are barely holding on right now.  I don’t know how much of your own “dead reckoning” and “wave pattern analysis” you’ve had to do to desperately keep your life on course, but I know at the end of all the failures, fears, and dread of darkness there is a lighthouse beam beckoning for us to circle in a holding pattern.  It is God’s light; His perfect life-giving Word.

Now here’s where it gets really good for those of us who are Christ-followers and have accepted Christ as the Forgiver and Leader of our lives.  That “word” that is praised and adored throughout the entire psalm 119 is not just a book on a shelf that needs to get dusted off now and then, like some forgotten navigational tool we need to reaclimate ourselves to.  That “Word” is Christ, Himself – His very living and active word, spoken to us in our innermost places, applied powerfully and transformatively by His Holy Spirit.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. “.  (John 1:1-5, NIV)

Indeed, the darkness has not, and will not overcome the light of Christ.  The Good News is that if you are in Christ, the lighthouse of His Word is not at some fixed, distant location miles out to sea, but it is steadily burning in you, right where you are.  In your suffering, cling to His Word, the Bible, and let Him bring it alive within you, illuminating the dark places, and strengthening your resolve and courage.

“And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe.”  

(1 Thessalonians 2:13, NIV)