TIDBITS OF INTEREST

I love choice little gems of learning. For instance, I have been working on a timeline to help me get the events of Bible times more clearly established in my mind, and in the process of my research on the internet I learned several things I didn't know.

1. I knew that the Jewish calendar was a lunar calendar, and that occasionally they popped in an extra month to keep the seasons intact, since a lunar calendar only has 29-30 days in it, meaning that the 11 days 'lost' each year add up and create a problem with keeping the seasons close to what they should be. What I didn't know is that there are 7 years out of 19 that get that extra month tacked on at the end. The last month of their year is Adar, and when a 13th month is added, it is Adar Beit. It would be akin to having December I and December II.

2. I knew that our present calendar is the Gregorian Calendar, but I didn't have any idea when it was instituted or why. It replaced the Julian Calendar initiated by Julius Caesar - and the year it was invented it was because Easter was off and needed to be adjusted....

3. I also learned that there are generally only 24 leap years in each 100 years, with the century years divisible by 400 (i.e., every 400 years) being the exception. That formula keeps us in sync with the rotation of the earth around the sun. 2000, for instance, was a leap year, but the last century year that had a leap year was 1600, and we won't have another one until 2400. I didn't know that! I thought leap years occurred every 4 years non-stop, but they don't occur in 3 out of 4 century-beginning years.

I find all this trivia fascinating. The disparity in the calendars makes it hard to precisely synchronize events in retrospect that occurred under a different system. The Jewish calendar began with 1 (at creation) and is now at 5772, as of Rosh Hashanah in what we know to be September 2011. When I try to establish dates related to B C and A D (and, yes, I refuse to use B C E and C E) I have to accept dates others have 'figured out'. At best they are approximate, but the timeline is still valuable for loosely establishing sequence. Trying to meld the Jewish lunar calendar, the Julian Calendar and the Gregorian Calendar to be in sync would be an exercise in futility - so I just accept coming close as sufficient.

What I do know is that God knows - and that's what matters most. My times are in His hands, and I am eternally grateful for that!

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Today was a very productive day! I made a lot of progress on edits to the musical and am feeling very good about that - and about the special 'shut in with God' time I had this morning, and His immediate response to that prayer time! God is good!