We will turn our clocks back one hour on the 27th of October. This is known as “daylight saving time”. It enables us to have an earlier sunrise in the winter months. Back in the mid-19th century many towns kept their own local time using the sun as a guide. Many castles, cathedrals and churches have sundials for this purpose. The UK was one of the first countries to standardize time throughout the world; known as Greenwich Mean Time, it became Britain’s legal standardized time in 1880.
It was Benjamin Franklin in 1784 who first had the idea of saving daylight as a way of saving on candles, but it wasn’t until 1907 when a British builder William Willett wrote a pamphlet titled, “The waste of daylight”, that the UK took up the idea of daylight saving. It was when William Willett was out on his horse one morning that he noticed many people still asleep long after the sun was up. This gave him the idea of putting the clocks forward in summer so that everyone could be up bright and early instead of snoozing away the daylight. Robert Pierce, a British member of parliament, introduced the bill of daylight-saving time in the House of Commons in February 1908. However, many people objected to this bill, especially farmers, and so the bill did not come into law until May 1916, one year after William Willett had died.
Having an earlier sunrise means earlier, darker evenings The autumn and winter months can seem like bleak, dark months, with miserable cold wintry weather. For some people autumn and winter can also be a dark place in their lives. I can imagine that throughout our lives we have all experienced a dark, sad and lonely times. It’s important to remember that no matter what we go through in life, whether they be happy times, sad times, or just everyday mundane times, God is always with us. God will never abandon us. In Hebrews 13: 5-6 we read, “I will never leave you or forsake you. So, you can say with confidence, the Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid, what can anyone do to me?” We also read in Matthew 28:10 “Teach them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always to the end of age”. We have the Holy Spirit to help and guide us, John 14:16-17 “and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate, to be with you forever. This is the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you”. So, you see, in faith we can say we are never alone. Whatever happens, take it to the Lord in prayer, in good times, sad times, dark times. God is always there, always listening, God will never let us down.
Jackie
