"The human heart is like a small ship,
heading, without stopping to rest,
towards the land of hope,
bearing its joy and pain along the way."

This rhyme was scribbled down on a piece of paper hanging on the kitchen wall of an alcoholic. His wife had hung it there before she took an overdose of sleeping tablets and laid herself down to die in a vineyard. Next to the piece of paper there hung a photo of her which showed her smiling. However, what was behind her smile? If you put everything what the husband had said about his wife together like the pieces of a puzzle, you are left with a picture of a tortured and lonely person.

Loaded down with sickness, a disturbed family life, an addiction to tablets, adultery, and belonging to a cult, her small ship drifted along on the tossing sea as driven by the waves and storms. Sometimes she saw the light of hope, however, in the great moment of making a decision, she was not willing to change her course; and as a result, she received help from the wrong people who happened to be close by to her. Therefore, her “small ship” continued to drift along on this fierce, spiritually dark and tossing sea of time.

She encountered manmade religions and philosophies, shining brightly with their false light, promising a lot but not able to keep their promises. Is it not the same way with us in some things? We are familiar with the natural world and its light is the sun. However, there is a spiritual world which is invisible to the human eye. Despite this great spiritual darkness which seems to rule here, “the lighthouse” is still sending out its light beams, with the message of Jesus Christ: Come to me; I will help you; I am still the same; I have not changed; don’t rely upon people, trust me; I have the power to save you, you still have time to change your course.

The woman didn't believe or had a desire for this; she continued to drift and went down with everything that she had. Jesus says to us all: “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” John 8,12. And in the sermon on the mount, Jesus says to those who believed and followed him: “Ye are the light of the world” Matthew 5,14. What does that mean for us today? His church, which bears his light within, is the LIGHTHOUSE. Stay on course with it and bring your “small ship” into safety!

The worldwide known emergency call on the sea “SOS” is the abbreviation for “Save our Souls”. Now in our day and age, people tend to think too much about things of the present, about earthly and transitory things; unfortunately, they do not think about eternal life which Jesus Christ is offering to them. They are sinking and do not realize it. They do not even attempt to send a SOS in the direction of Jesus. How about you? Make sure you send your SOS signals to HIM and do not give up! rw