
So we won the Super Bowl.
Philadelphia triumphed.
And people were congratulating me this week.
As if I had anything to do with it!?!!
Well, I suppose if you count the prayers, hand-wringing, fist-punches, screams, and vaulting I did from our couch during the game, then maybe I did.
My explosive reactions were almost as entertaining for my family as both teams’ impressive plays and the better-than-usual commercials.
It began with the first Eagles touchdown.
I leapt off the couch, clapping and yelling at the top of my lungs….
And sensed that the room was strangely quiet.
I looked down to see four faces staring back at me in amazement.
My husband chuckled.
“What?” I said, “They scored! THEY SCORED!!”
I started high-fiving everyone with both hands as my daughter asked, laughing, “Mom?!!? What’s happening to you?”
Admittedly, the display was out of (current) character for me.
“I’m sorry. The cheerleader in me just came out.”
Until that moment, I hadn’t realized how deeply I empathized with everyone watching back home in the City of Brotherly Love.
I hadn’t realized that….I truly felt what was so simply and perfectly expressed on an Eagles billboard I’d seen on the highway in PA the day before.
WE WANT IT.
It was time for the city to have the Vince Lombardi Trophy, and WE WANTED IT – BAD.
When the the game ended with Brady’s last throw meeting a mayhem of players in the end zone, my husband yelled, “That’s it!! That’s it!!” and we all screamed and cried, reveling in victory. The little celebratory scene in our family room was re-enacted millions of times over hundreds of square miles.
And yesterday was – literally – the Eagles’ day in the sun. I wasn’t there in the throng of a million loyal fans, but I poured over my family’s and friends’ photos of the city’s parade, exulting in what one friend called “the enormity of this thing.”
Indeed. The enormity of the thing.
Have you ever wanted something SO BADLY and wished for it SO LONG that when you finally get it you’re somewhat flabbergasted?
The excitement is just….well, mind-blowingly fun. You feel like a kid on Christmas morning. There’s almost no other way to describe it. You want it to last and last.
It’s too bad that every day life can’t bring the elation of this week, but if it did we couldn’t appreciate the joys of heaven.
Meantime, we rest in this…
Something we know for sure….
God loves Philadelphia. (wink wink)
And I’m fairly certain there will be Super Bowl wins for everyone in the great beyond.