devotions and reflections

When I arrived here in the UK I was a little bit shocked that the sun sets at 8 pm and in the summer at 10 pm. Winter is here and at 3 pm the sun sets. Now it confuses me regarding our sunset principle. It’s very flexible here. Some months we can go shopping until 9 pm on Friday evening. Some months we stop toiling at 3pm on Friday. But..here’s a big BUT…we can start watching tvs on Saturday afternoon at 3 pm when the sun sets.

I find this sunset issue very perplexing and how it is a burden to other people because they have to race with time especially on Friday afternoon preparing everything for Sabbath. Some months we have longer hours to prepare for Sabbath but in winter we get about one-third of the time compared to summer.

If we define Sabbath according to time and use the Bible as our basis then it surely as from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday. But then I think of Scandinavia, the land of the midnight sun. Some months they don’t get to see the sun at all while some months they don’t have nights at all.

At one point I wanted to set a fixed hour where Sabbath begins and as what I had been accustomed to I thought six o’clock post-meridien is the ideal time. Or better yet, just follow the midnight changeover just like how the world celebrates the New Year.

What do you think folks?