This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” [Psalm 118:24]
 

     What did you do Saturday? It was an extra day. Leap Day. Inserted at the end of February every fourth year. That makes it special. My brother-in-law was born on that day in 1968, which makes him a brand-new teenager...although try to tell his 52-year-old body that.

     An extra day! Does it feel like that? And this time around it comes on a weekend; but it’s not like we get two Saturdays—a second one to sleep in, go outside and play (in the pouring rain), address that to-do list, run out to Costco to wait in lines for face masks and hand sanitizer, or write a Newsletter article. Nope, it’s not extra in that way. The week just marches on.

     An extra day!? Maybe that’s not a good thing. An extra day of painful post-operative recovery, or to wait for the end-of-the-month paycheck, or worry about filing taxes, or to listen to campaign pledges from people wanting to be President (Is that why Leap Day always falls during the election cycle?).

     An extra day! For me, there’s an irony symmetry to it. It gives me an extra day to contemplate Lent. I’m thinking of that old adage: “March comes in like a lion, goes out like a lamb” (or vice versa—especially vice versa!). Like a lamb, Jesus goes uncomplainingly to slaughter—to spare us. Like a lion, He shall reign forever, putting all his enemies (sin, death, and the devil) under his feet. We know well the lamb part. It’s our focus during the season of Lent. We are still waiting for the lion part, which sometimes takes a LEAP of faith to live by. And an extra day.

     So, this is the extra day that God has made for us. To delight in, rejoice over, and be glad that we are alive. And that He lives!  Today, last Saturday, and every tomorrow.