It's eight o'clock.  Eight of us brave the crowds and enter Walmart.  There is no hat but the storting begins.  We all receive red bands.  Gryffindor.  We smile.  The kids fill out raffle tickets while I head to the bench in the fabric department.  I have a dress to smock.  Too bad I don't have Molly Weasley's embroidery needles.  Maybe they work like her knitting needles.

The store announces a trivia game in the electronics department.   Jenna wants to go.  Looking at patterns isn't nearly as exciting.  I remember why we're here (and it's not to get this piece smocked!) and we mosey on over to the electronics department.  Just in case you ever need to know... there are 13 quidditch teams in the league, Harry's birthday is July 31, Lupin's middle initial is J, Hagrid's mother is Fridwolfa , and Dumbledore's favorite jam is raspberry.  Just thought you might want to know.

Another quiz was starting playing the Sceene It game up near the customer service counter.  I now had bands for all houses.  While Jenna played the game (and knew most of theanswers by the way) I went to sit with a friend over in front of the ladies department.  Smocking slowed to almost a stand still but hey, it's more fun to talk with a friend anyway.  We discussed curriculum, the books and discovered that both of us were orginally in the anti-Potter camp.  I confessed how my pride was bruised when I had to face the fact that I was wrong about the books and what they were about. 

Meanwhile, Morgann and Amy Blair went to Jack in the Box and got me one of their decadent chocolate cakes.  They also bought fun marguerita glasses and orange juice as well as a sparkly light up wand.  Fitting wouldn't you say?  We went out into the foyer at Walmart, they sang an embarrassingly loud rendition of "Happy Birhday" (which I managed to speed up from the dirge-like tune) and I ate my cake and drank my juice.  It was a hoot.

Sometime after this, during a particularly empathetic moment, we all began writing on the backs of our left hands, "I must not tell lies."  Now that I'm done reading the book, it actually means something to me other than the bit of fun that it was when we did it.  Jenna managed to miss getting hers done so I just did hers a bit ago.  In red ink.  She's feeling particularly special at the moment.  Snort.

The hour ticked closer.  At a quarter till midnight we were shooed out of the store in order for them to set up the books.  Our group was second behind two other Gryffindor ladies.  11:50.  We're getting excited.  11:58.  Excitement builds to a point where we are ready to start counting down.  11:59:50.  We start counting down.  10, 9.... 4, 3, 2, 1...

Nothing.  The seconds tick by.  The minutes tick by.  We're confused.  At almost 12:05 our door opens.  "Ten at a time."  I feel awful.  I don't want to limit those who want in for books by all of us coming in but on the other hand, they've been waiting to see the piles!  The employee, a little disppointed by our decorous behavior suggested that we run.  hee hee.  Morgann was thrilled to be the first one to pick up a book from the tables at our Walmart.  We bought two.  We'll be giving one to the library when we're done.

I confess, I felt a little like I imagine Christians behind the Iron Curtain must have when Bibles were smuggled across.  How we take our Bibles for granted.  I'll be holding mine a little more dear this week.  As anticipated as this book is, and as much fun as it was to hold a party for its debut, it's just another book.  It's a good one, I grant you, but we take our books for such granted in this country.  I'm feeling so very awed at the mental image of people in places like East Germany or Russia during the height of Communist rule hearing that there are Bibles coming to xyz store and they can buy them.  There will be a party for 4 hours before the Bibles are released for sale. 

People come dressed as their Bible heroes.  They do quizzes and count down the minutes.  People can't wait to see the stacks of Bibles and be the first to have one in their hands.  We live in a country where this idea is so foreign to us.  Many Christians have half a dozen Bibles in their homes.  Our family has well over a dozen by the simple fact that there are 10 of us even if each only owns one Bible.  I can see the people rushing home.  It's after midnight but they dont' care.  They want to read this book that has been talked about, anticipated, and they've read snippets of for years.  They stay up until their eyes won't stay open another minute.  They collapse exhausted but content. 

It was a little like that.  We were home, comfortable, and reading the book by 12:25.  I read the final words, went to bed, and slept like a baby at 6:25 am.  I'm now up and mulling the storyline in my head.  It was so good.  Such a satisfactory ending.  It wasn't an EASY ending and I must confess I'm feeling a sense of loss over a few characters but the loss is worth it. 

People have questioned whether J.K. Rowling is a Christian or not.  Sure, she belongs to the church of Scotland but does that mean anything in terms of salvation.  I don't know.  I refuse to make it my business to determine the eternal state of anyone.  I encourage everyone to sit before the Lord, His Word in their hands, and see if they are sitting redeemed and if not, appeal to the Lord for salvation before it is too late.  However, the end of this book shows that there is no doubt as to Rowling's opinion of the Gospel.  Her final chapters read as almost allegorical.  It is so clearly influenced by the final chapers of the Gospels that plagairism kept coming to mind but it's the wrong word.  That word implies that Rowling did something wrong and she didn't.  Her final chapters remind me of Aslan in Narnia.  Clearly influenced by scripture, definite recreation of it, but you can't say it isn't their own work.

I'll be reading it again.  No, it's not on par with scripture.  I won't memorize it and 'hide it in my heart' but I am thankful that a series of stories that I've loved so much does prompt me to want to read my Bible in a new way.  I wonder... if Harry is a fictional 'type' of Jesus, is it a coincidence that his last name is 'potter'?

I just can't stop thinking of Paul's words in Philippians 1:15- 20 where he essentially says, "I don't care why or how someone preaches the Gospel, JUST DO IT.