What a joy it is to look forward to the Sabbath — a time when God comes to meet with us, wherever we are in the world! It is a universal gift, not limited to any one place, but reaches right around the globe, from sunset to sunset.
The Sabbath, a gift given to the entire human race at the beginning of time, is a day like no other. We read in Genesis 2:1-3, “Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work . . . Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.”
As Seventh-day Adventists, we recognize the seventh day is more than just another day of the week—it is the Sabbath, a fact not so well reflected in the English name of “Saturday,” but the idea comes across beautifully in some other languages, such as Sábado in Spanish, Subbota in Russian, Savvato in modern Greek, and so on.
One of the joys of the Sabbath is worshipping together with fellow believers. During this past year, however, it's been challenging to meet in person due to the Coronavirus. While this opened the door for a lot of creativity through electronic worship services using YouTube, Zoom, Facebook and so on, we are thankful that in many places, restrictions are now easing and more churches are open for meeting in person, following local guidelines, of course.
Wherever we are, God invites us to make the Sabbath a delight--a joyful time of togetherness with Him, a time to remember Him as our Creator and to rest in Him as our Redeemer. Throughout history, God has always had a people who have worshipped Him on His special day, and we know it will be so through the end of time.
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it" (Ex. 20:8-11).