Every four years we get an extra day in our calendar year. Today is that day – February 29th. Leap Year!
It’s an odd thing when you think about it. An extra day. But there is some good science around it. Basically it takes 365 days + 6 hours (approximately) for the earth to go around the sun. So every 4 years we add a day to keep the seasons in sync with the calendar. If we didn’t, we’d lose 24 days over the course of 100 years (http://www.timeanddate.com/date/leap-day.html). Eventually summer would be in December and winter would be in July for those of us in the northern hemisphere. Would be an odd thing.
In many ways today is a bonus day, a gift. Kind of like daylight savings time in the spring when we gain an hour (not the fall time change; it feels more like a thief stealing that hour). The question we often hear about that extra hour is “What will you do with it?”
Time is a gift and God calls us to be good stewards and managers of our time.
“Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered — how fleeting my life is.” Psalm 39:4
Also check out James 4:14 & Psalm 90:2.
So if today is a bonus day, what will you do with it?