March 1 – “What day is it?”

I had to do a double-take when I looked at the clock on my desk this morning.  It shows the date and day as well as the time, and the date that was showing was February 29^th.  Now at first it didn’t register with me what was wrong.  It just seemed that something was off around me, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.  I even read through the Sunday paper wondering about it.  But it wasn’t until I had to type in the date for this blog that I realized that my little clock just didn’t understand that February 29^th only comes around every four years.  The whole leap year concept appears to be beyond its comprehension. 

Now the reason I got the thing was because it purports to be one of those atomic clocks that can read the radio waves or something and automatically adjust itself to the correct time and date.  In fact I have its big brother sitting on a bookshelf in my office, and the older sibling seemed to have handled the change with aplomb.  (Like that word?  I’ve always wanted to use it in a sentence.  I think it means something like, “quite well” or “with assurance”).  Guess I’ll have to figure out how to change it manually.  But then, that would mean searching for the instructions (we do keep things like that around here somewhere) or pushing button combination after button combination to find the secret code leading to the correct mode, where then you have to push more buttons to actually get the date correct.  The former would befit someone of my generation – OK, my advanced years.  The latter is more of a reflection of the younger set, the ones who were born with a touch screen in their hands.  The older generation fears doing something that might break the apparatus.  The youngsters crave the information.  If the machine can’t take the heat, it ought to be put out to pasture anyway.  Wait.  No.  They would say “put out to pasture,” would they?  The imagery would have little meaning to someone who had never seen a pasture, much less been involved with farm life.  For that matter, they would wonder why I even have a clock on my desk when my cell phone is sitting right there alongside it.  There’s just that one amazing factor with the clock that cell phones just don’t have the battery to duplicate.  It is always on.  Every time I look over at it, the display continues.  No buttons to push.  No screen to swipe.  My fingers can stay busy typing or, heaven forbid, holding my place in the actual book I am reading.  Ah, well.  I guess I should hurry on to correct the date snafu.  I do have church this morning, and I need to go over my teaching notes.  Which are typed out on a piece of paper, by the way …

Psalms 8:3-4 says, “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?”

Father, thank you for all the amazing technological advances that make our lives easier.  I do appreciate them.  Don’t understand many of them, but I do appreciate them.  Kind of like how I’ll never understand you, but oh, do I appreciate you.  Amen.