December Daily {:1:} Increasingly repeated glories

December 1st began at midnight with me on my couch, barely breathing, wrought with nerves, wrenching my hands over and over.  It was the second half of the Iron Bowl, the classic rivalry football matchup between the University of Alabama and Auburn University.  This game wasn't just an average football game though.  For those of you not into football, let me break it down for you:

• Bama has won three of the last four national championships in college football.  They've won 18 games straight.  They're good.  Really good.  And they were marching their way to a third straight championship.  
• Auburn was terrible last year.  Really terrible.  Even with a new coach this year, no one expected us to be doing as well as we've been doing.  Before last night, we'd come from being so terrible last year, to ranked #4 in the nation.  Woah.  But no one expected us to win against Bama.  I don't even think any of us Auburn fans expect to win.  Sure, we had that miracle catch two weeks ago, but miracles don't happen back to back...or do they?
• The game itself was one of the best football games I remember ever watching.  It was close, it was tense, and there was just no way to know how it was going to end.  
• Then...
• Tied score, with one second left on the clock.  ONE SECOND.  Bama had the ball, and should have won.  At least, if they didn't win, it should've gone into overtime.  Instead, a play happened that has only happened three other times in all of college football history. 
• Then, this happened:

(click pause after you're done watching, or some other video about fantasy football will start.  oops.)

Two weeks ago, all the football world was astounded by Auburn's "miracle" catch.  It was being called the play of the year.  And then last night happened.  One guy called it the best ending in sports history, ever, and gave 8 reasons why in THIS article.  Indeed, it was an amazing moment of glory being repeated with surpassing greatness.

As Davis ran down the field, I said, then exclaimed, then shouted, "What is happening?!"  I remembered that it was almost two in the morning and that I cannot wake my neighbors again, and thus clamped my hands over my mouth...and began to cry.

Yes, I cried.  I cry at the Olympics, I cry at the American Idol finale, I cry at the Oscars.  I cry when people's dreams come true because I'm just so happy for them.  And after having been nervous all week long, and so nervous before the game last night that I felt ill, and not being able to yell, the only other way to get out all those emotions was to cry.  It's a great moment, right now, to be an Auburn Tiger.

I went to bed, finally, around 2:30, and enjoyed the rare occasion of sleeping in.  

I've been meeting with a woman who I'll call *Amy* (not her real name), to help her improve her English, and we normally meet on Saturdays.  But yesterday was the day my friends here celebrated Thanksgiving, and today was the annual Christmas Carol concert.  So last week I invited Amy to go to the concert with me, and we switched our normal plans around for this abnormal (but wonderful) weekend.  

But late Friday night, Amy sent me this text:  

I love her sweet text, especially the part that says, "Have a good evening kiss."  Hehe.  In France, people greet one another to say hello and goodbye with a kiss on each cheek.  In texting, email, on the phone, you can write/say the word, "bisous," as an informal greeting.  This is one of those times where commas make the world of difference.  Hehe.  

Being canceled on, stood up, or even losing touch with someone for weeks/months at a time is normal.  I didn't use to know that.  But after so many years here, I've begun to see that it is normal.  And the friends who drop off the planet for awhile eventually do resurface.  So...I changed my plans around to meet up with Mrs. X at the concert, since that's who I have always gone with in the past.

For those of you who wondered, Aix is about 30 minutes from Marseille, and I can get there by bus.

But not my normal bus pass that I use to get around Marseille.  Oh, that life would be that easy.  I have to buy a separate bus ticket.  I can reload it with multiple trips, so I usually try to keep it loaded with at least a round-trip.  That way I can head over to Aix whenever I want.

Mr. X is the choir director for the concert every year, which means that Mrs. X (and I, as her friend), get to sit in the reserved seating up front.  Going to this concert has become a tradition for me here, and I really do love it.  Singing Christmas carols and having a candlelight service somehow just blesses my expat heart and helps me feel all ready for the Christmas season.  It's a great way to kick off Advent.

Mr. X is an awesome conductor, and I LOVE watching him lead the choir.  I love it so much I really should join the choir, cause then I'd have an even better view of him directing.  (Conducting?)  But then I'd have to sing in front of people, and well, that isn't going to happen.

Oh, look!  I spy the Crazy Cajun up in the choir.

Wait a minute!  Hold the phone!  I also spy BonFils in the choir!  I just saw him yesterday and he didn't mention being in the choir.  Turns out the Crazy Cajun talked him into doing it right when BonFils showed up to watch the concert!  How about that?!  I kept trying to make him laugh, and while I was successful several times, I was not successful in catching a photo of him laughing.

But look at this photo I captured of Mr. X leading the audience!  As he would say, "That's Elvis!"

I headed home to have dinner and do my first Advent devotional, lighting my first candle in the wreath.  Mary is beginning her journey to Bethlehem...

So what do last night's game and the start of advent have to with one another?  Normally nothing.  But for me, they actually might have something in common, or at least I hope they do.  See, a few years ago, the season of Advent deeply blessed my heart.  Every little thing about the whole season drew my heart towards the Lord: anticipating the coming of God with us, the glory of the Word becoming flesh.  I marveled at the deep theology written so poetically in the lyrics of the Christmas carols.  I wanted the sweetness of Christmas to last as long as possible.

And I've been wondering lately if I can recreate that awe, that marvel, again, afresh, this Christmas?  Is it possible to have a second miracle, in my heart, in a whole new way, this year?  I wasn't sure.

Sometimes, like when friends like *Amy canceled our appointment, I feel like I'm down 28-21 in the last minute of the Iron Bowl.

But Auburn's double miracle made me think maybe I, too, can score again.  Their two miracles were in no way the same to each other.  They didn't try to recreate anything.  Both times, they showed up with hope and something awesome happened.  In fact, the second was greater than the first.  It was an amazing moment of glory being repeated with surpassing greatness.  So maybe I can have the same?  Maybe I can show up with hope by that advent wreath every morning and evening this advent season, and those amazing moments of glory from years past will be repeated with surpassing greatness this time around.

Maybe, as I ponder and celebrate God With Us, the Word become flesh, I will be wrought with emotion, wondering "What is happening?!" and have my eyes, once again, fill with tears of joy at the wonder of it all.  I want that surpassing greatness again and again...with Him.