Lights Out at Whit's End

Whit’s End has been transformed into a small movie studio so a group of children can produce a program about communication. Amanda directs, Bobby helps with the equipment, and Officer David Harley eagerly asks for a role. Just as Whit explains that communication carries an idea from one person’s mind to another, the production lights - and every other light in town - go dark.

Tom Riley and Marianne Josephs arrive with a flashlight and report that the entire area has lost power. Fallen lines near the generating station have caused traffic problems, and repairs may take hours. Because the dark streets are unsafe, Officer Harley advises everyone to remain at Whit’s End. Whit telephones the children’s parents and assures them that their families can collect them once the power returns.

Amanda assumes there is nothing to do without lights, cameras, and other electrical equipment. Whit challenges the idea that fun depends on electricity. He remembers when entertainment required people to create something together with whatever they had, and he proposes replacing the unfinished movie with a live stage show.

Using candles and shiny pie tins, Whit and the children make simple footlights. They gather household objects for props and turn the planned documentary into a humorous history of communication. Whit interviews a three-thousand-year-old man about drums, cave drawings, smoke signals, grunts, and the oral tradition that carries accounts from one generation to the next. Amid the jokes, the ancient visitor offers practical advice: people have two ears and one mouth, so they should listen twice as much as they speak.

The next sketch imagines Johannes Gutenberg struggling with heavy iron pages and letters carved backward. A cleaning woman accidentally spreads ink from the type onto paper and reveals how the letters can print readable words. Realizing that movable type will allow ideas to travel through inexpensive books, Gutenberg chooses the opening words of Genesis for his first great project.

Tom carries the history forward to Alexander Graham Bell, while Officer Harley portrays a telephone that is tired of being spoken through and wants to speak for itself. The performance becomes a lively song about the many ways people share ideas: speech, writing, signs, expressions, and conversation. Tom stresses listening, and Whit adds that Christians must communicate the good news that God can give new life to people lost in sin.

The electricity returns just as the cast reaches the height of its fun. Whit expects everyone to resume the movie, but the children would rather continue their live performance. With no electronic effects and only their imaginations, they have discovered that the activity itself matters less than being together. Whit identifies that kind of shared life as fellowship, and the group happily returns to its communication song.