If you’re somewhere in the vicinity of my age, does that title make you think of a Heinz ketchup commercial?

Anticipation….Anticipa-a-tion…It’s makin’ me wait (it’s slowwww good)…It’s keepin’ me wai-ai-ai-ai-aitin’…

Kudos to whomever wrote that little beauty, because it still rings through my head whenever I’m waiting on something with excitement.

Yesterday, after getting a good report on my stress fracture and instructions for 2 more weeks in the bootie to protect it for Europe, I spent the afternoon working on some last minute things for the trip (a month away!). I’m in my happy place making travel plans. I’ve also got a precious friend heading here to Texas in November, so I spent a couple of hours getting my time with her planned, too. The entire afternoon made my heart happy, with so much to look forward to.

It was a lovely evening out here, last night, and we were laying out on the lounge chairs. I had Pandora playing their Frank Sinatra station, and right there between My Way and Fly Me to the Moon, there was Dean Martin’s version of Baby, It’s Cold Outside. Upon hearing the first few notes, the thrill of Christmas hit in the way it does when the weather starts to get slightly cooler and school has officially begun. I was filled with the sweet knowledge that my babies, large and small, would all be here for an early Christmas, and I began counting down those days, too.

Sometimes we are so caught up in the grind, the difficult and the challenging in everyday, that we forget it’s all moving us forward to something wonderful. Even if there are no big trips or special events coming up on the calendar, there ARE snippets of time every day and every week that involve those we love. Those are worth focusing on, and anticipating. We forget that. We also forget that the hard stuff is all just temporary. We have an eternity waiting for us that includes exactly NONE of the difficult; just the wonderful.

Isn’t it marvelous that if we will look beyond our circumstance to the everyday gifts coming right around the corner, we can get a taste of heaven…even as we anticipate the real thing?

Gives new meaning to a “sweet forever.” It really is slowww good.

“In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?” John 14:2 ESV