Thankful Thursday: Anticipation

When I was a child, I was an antsy child, impatient for something, anything to happen.

But in all my anticipation as a child, I never knew that anticipation could make one’s heart so full that one could hardly breathe. I never knew that it could make one’s heart so full that one jostle might make it break into a confetti of celebration.

Yet this is the anticipation that I feel. Now. As an adult.

Today I’m thankful…

…for expectation of changes at work
I’ve had all three of my dietary managers out for a month now, two of them for two months. I’ve been running crazy, doing four people’s jobs. But the light is now visible at the end of the tunnel and I’m wild with anticipation for the new chapter to come.

…for mounting excitement about Sunday School this year
I’m teaching third and fourth graders this year–the same exact class I had as second and third graders last year. I’m excited to work with them all again after this summer’s break. I’m excited for the curriculum (A Children Desiring God study called “To Be Like Jesus”). I’m excited to work with the two women who will be helping me this year (I have two helpers this year? After none last year? Yes, that’s right, and I’m so thrilled to get to work with these wonderful women.)

…for continuous anticipation of the next conversation
I hang up the phone and remember a half dozen questions I forgot to ask. I close the Skype window and am already thinking about another thing to say, to show. I send a message and I’m on the edge of my seat for a reply. I’m forever bursting in anticipation.

…for glorious expectation of The Day

“Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”
~I Corinthians 13:8-12

The delight I am experiencing is but a foretaste of heaven–and it makes me long for the day when the mirror is broken and I stand face to face with the Lover of my Soul.

Thank You, Lord, for this beautiful anticipation. Thank You, Lord, for the overwhelming joy of this moment. May this delicious anticipation only ever and always make me anticipate the fullest of all joys–knowing You.