feast of the incarnation/invasion

It was a great day.

Wait, you have no knowledge of the context! How could you possibly understand the shock value of what I just said without the context?!

It's finals week. Everyone I know is buried under seemingly impossible mounds of homework: exegetical papers, philosophy papers, general-education-type papers, TESTS like you would not believe...And most folks are yearning for home, for repreive, for solace. It's wet and cold here in Chicago, and for the rest of the campus, it's "reading day"--we're supposed to be studying.

BUT I'M NOT. Which is why it was a great day!

Two weeks ago I was more stressed than I had ever thought possible and I'm still marvelling at God's incredible grace in helping me to survive that with little injury. However, that means that I am now free. I have two exams. One tomorrow and one on Friday. Then I sing at commencement and go home (which is like, an hour away).

ANYWAY...today I woke up a little after ten o'clock (ew, so late!) and did nothing until I met my friend for coffee at 1:00. But the BEST PART happened at 2:00pm.

MOVIE TIME!! Yes, that's right folks. Today was the North Park Biblical and Theological Studies Organization's first ever event. We watched The Nativity Story (great movie, watch it!) and had some discussion afterwards about the movie and Christmas in general. We decided that Christmas has become a bit fluffy--yes, it's a very joyous, triumphant thing, and we agree that celebrating Jesus' birth is a good idea. But it just seemed to us like saying "Merry Christmas!" to people just doesn't mean anything to anyone anymore. It's become almost like Valentine's Day; just another Hallmark holiday where people buy things for each other and pretend to care. But I don't want to go too far down the road of cynicism...

Thus, the Feast of the Incarnation. Or the Feast of the Invasion. These two are obviously much more thought-provoking options, no? Who says "have a blessed Feast of the Incarnation/Invasion"?? If we greet one another this holiday season in this way, it jolts us out of our Christmas slump and forces us to remember exactly what went down at Christmas two thousand years ago - the Lord of the world became a little baby, a baby who even before his birth began to usurp the thrones of all kings in all nations...

Pretty cool, if you ask me. Have a blessed Feast of the Incarnation/Invasion.

Peace