I have another question for you: Why daylight savings time? Why not night darkness savings time? Why try to maximize our time in the light rather than in the darkness?
Of course, the politicians give us practical reasons: More daylight after the workday or school day to get things done; less energy consumption; more economic activity; and so on. But perhaps there is something else going on, beneath the practicality of it all. Perhaps, at some level, man was made to prefer the light.
Now, some philosophies take darkness and light as equally good, as complimentary and interconnected forces in nature. This view is often represented by the Yin and Yang symbol.
The Bible offers a different account. In Genesis, God’s first act in creation, indeed His first recorded words, are “Let there be light.” He creates light when there is sheer nothingness, described as “darkness over the face of the deep.” Darkness was not good, but after he created it, God “saw that the light was good.” No wonder, then, that man—created in God’s image—was made to prefer the light to the darkness.
But later in John’s gospel, he explains why that’s not true of everyone:
“[P]eople loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.”
That’s why thieves usually plan their break-ins for the nighttime hours, why most high school kids get into trouble after the sun goes down, and why Shakespeare writes in Hamlet: “Tis now the very witching time of night, When Churchyards yawne, and hell it selfe breakes out Contagion to this world.”
“Whoa, Mr. Gibson,” you might say, “You’re making a pretty big deal out of a little change in the clocks!” Maybe. But sometimes little things help us see big truths. May we never find ourselves on night darkness savings time.
Have a wonderful day.