In hopeful anticipation

Do you feel it? Do you get the sense that something good is coming? When I'm not focusing on all the mundane and trivial things of the here and now, I stop and I feel it. Good things are coming....the flowers are pushing their way up out of the soil, the air is getting a little warmer, new lives are being birthed all around us.

I'm thinking of my beautiful friend, Jill, and her girls. I remember at exactly this time 6 years ago, I was a senior in college, anticipating and eagerly working towards my Senior Art Exhibit and graduation. She was at the end of her third trimester, eagerly anticipating the birth of her first baby girl. We shared in each other's joy and accomplishment. We looked forward with expectancy and trepidation to how our lives would change in this new season. We had tremendous hope.

Now my wonderful friend Aimee is eagerly anticipating her first baby. A bouncing baby boy. As I gather a care package to send to her...I find myself excited. Eager. Hopeful. For a new little person to enter the world, bringing joy and blessing to his parents.

But even more than the weather and new life....I'm anticipating the Easter holiday. Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Resurrection/Easter Sunday....for some reason I look forward to the celebration more this year. Maybe it's because this year I've had my share of sorrow. Maybe it's because I've started looking forward to celebrations and remembrances. Maybe it's because my heart's cry is for more of Jesus. How I would have loved to be amongst the women that saw their glorified Savior. I can just imagine the tears, the fear, the excitement when I tried to tell the others of what I had seen and experienced. And how I would want to cling desperately to Him when said He was leaving....only to come back one day. I have experienced the resurrected presence of the living God. And I want more. If you ever see me crying, shaking, stumbling over myself trying to tell you about Him....it's because my words could never do justice to who He is and the love he has for us. But I desperately want you to know.

Most of the time you'll see me doing completely mundane things, going to work, cooking food, taking care of my home, doing laundry.....but I have a little secret. I know there's more! I have the complete assurance and utter HOPE of more! This isn't all there is for me....

What will we celebrate this spring? What will we fix our hopeful, tender hearts on?