By Jim Nichols

A catchy advertising slogan is an important part of business. It might be a rhyme or a semi-joke, but potential customers need to remember it. 

As a boy, we took family summer vacations in the car. Part of the treat was staying in a “motel” a few nights unless we were visiting relatives. Motels then were single level, no restaurant, privately-owned small facilities that had unique qualities. Sometimes those qualities were positive for children such as a small golf putting green, shuffleboard, or badminton court. Other qualities dealt more with hygiene, something my mother took seriously. Routinely, she would ask to see the actual room for rent before she would agree to stay there. Occasionally, she would veto the room on the spot. This was before “cookie-cutter” facilities, so there was significant variety available. One new motel chain at the time (Holiday Inn) even used a slogan, “The best surprise is no surprise.” My mother did not like surprises at the motel.

In Santa Barbara, California, in 1962, two individuals started a lower cost alternative chain to motels such as Holiday Inn. Initially, they rented rooms at what today would be an unbelievable price of $6.00. They named the chain “Motel Six.”

In the middle 1980s Motel Six began an advertising campaign that ended each commercial with a single sentence by an announcer with a folksy and warm voice. He said, “I’m Tom Bodett, and we’ll leave the light on for you.” That phrase stuck in the heads of many customers for years.

Leaving the light on allows you to know you are welcome; there is nothing to fear.

Photo credit: Kelly Kikkema, Unsplash

Fairyland was an amusement park in Kansas City and our family went once a year. There was a “Fun House” there that was much scarier to me than fun. I would sit alone in a small cart mounted on rails like a small single train. Once seated, the cart would move on the track from the outside to the inside of the building through swinging, noisy, saloon-type doors. It was completely dark inside. Other carts carrying people were on the track ahead of and behind me, and I could hear them screaming, but I could not see them. The track was not straight but curved sharply left and right with rough stops and starts. Sometimes the track slanted downward to one side, and I felt that I was about to fall out. Along the route, periodic lights flashed, loud noises erupted, and animated monsters jumped at me. It was frightening, but I still chose to ride every year.

One year as my cart burst through the door into the darkness, it was not dark inside. Since there were multiple mechanisms to scare me in the room, clearly, they needed periodic maintenance. Apparently, the most recent repair person, upon finishing the work, had forgotten to turn off the lights in the room. Everything was visible. As I approached a right turn, I could see that the track turned right. As I approached a bump or dip in the track, I could see it coming. Monsters designed to frighten me lost their spell. It was a totally different experience because some 60-watt bulbs illuminated the previously terrifying room.

It is not an accident that scripture often uses the imagery of light. Leaving the light on at Motel Six did not change the building but illuminated it so that we could see it. Accidentally leaving on the light in the Fun House completely changed its effects on children like me. No longer was it a place of dread, but a place that I could recognize and incorporate into my understanding.

Light does not change a room, but it does enable us to see what is in it. We might see beauty and opportunity.

It is important to note that scripture identifies Christ as the “true light shining in the darkness” and then incorporates you and me by stating that we walk in the light and we ourselves are the light of the world. The light has been transferred to us. Someone left the light (of God) on for us and now we have become that light for others. No one hides a light under a basket because people depend on the light to find welcome and safety.

That is our role as followers.

Jim Nichols is a retired Abilene Christian University biology professor and current hospital chaplain