Our word for today is anticipation. Best defined as the act of looking forward to an event. A pleasurable expectation if you will. I like the word and relate to it often. I have said that the anticipation can be as enjoyable as the event you are looking forward to. We are planning a trip to Greece and Donna is enjoying all the preparation, plans and accommodations for the trip. She is already joyful and our ship hasn’t even sailed.

The word received significant notoriety in 1971 when Carly Simon had her hit tune titled "Anticipation". She composed the lyrics while waiting in her New York City apartment for another artist Cat Stevens to arrive for a dinner date. She decided to pass the time by picking up her guitar and the rest is history. A few years later, Simon granted permission for the song to be used in a Heinz ketchup commercial. The ad led to the development of the squeeze bottle container. The commercial ensured a long shelf life for the tune.

I don’t know about you, but I am living my life in this broken world in the anticipation of eternity in heaven. While I love the wonderful relationships I have now that bring me joy, my heart longs to reunite with my lost loved ones. I wait, like the ketchup oozing out of the bottle, for life in a place with no grief. Ecclesiastes 3:11 is a reminder that God has promised eternity and the anticipation of such is far beyond any worldly success or experience. This divine anticipation allows us to live now with courage, purpose and hope being assured that heaven is never far from our everyday moments.

May we, as followers of Jesus, find peace today in the assurance that our true citizenship is in heaven. The anticipation we have for belonging and wholeness is divine evidence that we are made for something much more than this broken world. In that promise, we wait in anticipation for our savior to bring us home.