Luxor Light
“Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.” [Genesis 1:3]
The beam of light shooting straight up from the top of the pyramidshaped Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas is the brightest manmade light in the world. The powerful ray of light is produced by combining 39 of the brightest Xenon lights made, each as big as a washing machine. Each light costs about $1,200, and the electricity to power them all runs around $50 an hour. Using computer-designed curved mirrors to focus the light, the intense beam generates over 42 billion candlepower of light, bright enough to read a newspaper 10 miles up in space.
On a clear night Luxor’s Sky Beam is visible to airplanes up to 250 miles away. You can understand why pilots flying around Las Vegas must be very careful to avoid passing directly over the Luxor beam, or they can be temporally blinded by a blazing white flash in their cockpits. To produce this much light and cool the beacon housing requires approximately 370,000 watts of power.
No matter where you are in the Las Vegas Valley, you can see this light. Some local residents actually find comfort in seeing the bright beam shining up into space at night. Others find it to be a directional point, helping them if they get lost. Sadly, the brightest manmade light in the world is mostly wasted. When the Las Vegas desert air is dry and clean the beam does not strike any dust or clouds. It shines straight out into empty space, unseen.
The Bible teaches there is another even brighter light that is mostly unused. The Scriptures tell us, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105). Brighter than the intense Luxor Sky Beam, the Bible points us to something beyond the immensity of space. It is a reliable guidance system that gives us comfort and direction in our darkest moments. We when spend time reading the Bible, no light will ever be wasted.
