February 2012

We will have a ‘leap day’ (February 29th) this year, an extra day added into the calendar to make things come out even. We do this approximately every four years, so that the calendar doesn’t get ahead of reality … the earth does NOT travel in one complete circle around the sun in exactly 365 days, but takes closer to 365.2199 days. How do we know this? We can measure exactly when the equinox days occur, when our daylight equals darkness. This happens twice each year. But because .2199 is not exactly .25, adding in one day every four years is not quite exact, so we have to make adjustments for the adjustments - - every 200 years or so, we skip a leap-year. We didn’t have a leap-day in 1900, and won’t have one in 2100.

This can be quite mind-boggling, and is fun to think about. It amazes me that thousands of years ago, mathematicians were able to do the calculations to figure these things out. They didn’t have our computers, or our telescopes or our knowledge about the universe. Yet they had all of this rather precisely calculated. It is humbling.

Do we really get ‘an extra day’ this year? If we weren’t counting our days, and assigning them to numbers within a month on a calendar, we would not notice. (Do the birds of the air or the fish of the sea cogitate on such things and pay any attention to a “leap day”? “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” ~Matthew 6:26)

If we were granted the gift of an extra day in our lives, how might we use it? Would we use it to tell loved ones how much we love them, would we write notes of instructions to others, would we indulge in some of our favorite activities one more time, would we use it to pray and seek to put our souls right with God? February 29th isn’t all that special (unless you are unfortunate to be born on this day). Yet EVERY day that we live is a special day! EACH day we enjoy is a gift from God. Let us live each and every day of our lives appreciating the gifts that God has given to us, savoring - and not wasting - each moment we are granted.

“This is the day the Lord hath made;
he calls the hours his own.
Let heaven rejoice, let earth be glad,
and praise surround the throne.”
(Isaac Watts, 1719, paraphrasing Psalm 118:24)

Blessings,
Rev. Kit