This Year. Leap Year.

         Welcome to 2024! This year we are gifted with one day more than last year. I still remember the rhyme I memorized in elementary school. It goes like this: 

Thirty days has September,
April, June, and November.
All the rest have thirty-one.
But February’s really great!
It only has twenty-eight.
Leap year comes once in four, Then February has one day more. 

Yes, this year is a leap year but why is it called ‘Leap Year’? What exactly are we leaping over? 

Well for all you math and science buffs, here’s the details:

The National Air and Space Museum of Washington DC states that “A calendar year is typically 365 days long. These so called “common years” loosely define the number of days it takes the Earth to complete one orbit around the Sun. But 365 is actually a rounded number. It takes Earth 365.242190 days to orbit the Sun, or 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes and 56 seconds. This “sidereal” year is slightly longer than the calendar year, and that extra 5 hours 48 minutes and 56 seconds needs to be accounted for somehow. If we didn’t account for this extra time, the seasons would begin to drift. This would be annoying if not devastating, because over a period of about 700 years our summers, which we’ve come to expect in June in the northern hemisphere, would begin to occur in December! By adding an extra day every four years, our calendar years stay adjusted to the sidereal year.” 

So why is this sidereal year called a leap year? Think about the day Christmas occurred in 2023. It was a Monday, right? In 2024 it should be on a Tuesday but every four years Christmas “leaps” over a day and will now be on a Wednesday in 2024. As the rhyme goes, “once in four, one day more”. 

I praise the Lord God that He created the days, the nights, the years, and all the seasons in perfect harmony. In Genesis 1:14a it is written: “And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years.” In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth He also created the sun, moon, and stars to mark and measure time. God knew exactly how far to set the sun from the earth knowing that a few million kilometres more or less would alter our lives in significant ways. “Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they existed, and were created.” Rev. 4:1 

What will you do with one more day in 2024? 

My challenge to you is to show the love of Jesus with an act of kindness, or an act of mercy, or a time of giving. This Year. Leap Year. One day more to be like Jesus.