MESSAGE FROM PASTOR EMILY

Dear friends,

Happy Leap Year! February 29 is the time when we pay attention to the truth that the universe isn’t

conveniently neat: our yearly trip around the sun doesn’t divide evenly by the daily rotation of the earth.

And if you look it all up, you find out that the math of time and nature just gets messier after that. I think

that’s good news.

Calendars are tempting things. They promise order and predictability – or at least a sense of seeing

what’s coming. But that’s not the true picture of creation. So Leap Year reminds us that the order we like

to impose isn’t truly natural. There’s an old tradition that in the Leap Year, or on the Leap Day, women may

ask men to marry them – and the men have to pay a forfeit if they decline! Although customs are changing,

for many years that “turnabout” upset predictability and social order. February is also the time of Carnival in

many cultures, another ritual of overturning order and predictability.

That’s what I like about Leap Years: When we’re reminded that time is messy, we may become a

little more creative, a little more “out of the box.” We may be a little more open to unpredictable miracles

and opportunities. So this month, I invite you to try a little turnabout. Eat breakfast for dinner. Move a

Saturday treat to Wednesday. When you pray, wonder about God’s hopes and needs and gratitude, and

invite God to ask you for help. Be adventurous in this turnabout month, and let the Holy Spirit lead you out

of the calendar and into God’s time.

Blessings,

Pastor Emily