Anticipation

"There is going to be a lot of high wind associated with this front, and some moderate severe storms may pop up."  I am listening to the weatherman on the tv.   My phone gets alerts that our area is under a high wind warning until 8:00 pm tonight, and email tells me that there is a tornado watch for most of the day.  It is the most talked about subject so far today.  Anticipating storms can be fun.  I like to hear that cities to the west are experiencing high winds, thunderstorms, or even snow.

Anticipation is not always good.  I let my mind wander to "If this happens, then I'll do that" scenarios.  You can not live your life like that.  Anticipation seems to always set the bar higher and then we are let down at what happens.  But we can take life as it happens.  Okay, the weatherman says it is going to rain today. He says it will be windy.  Cool.  But if none of that happens, who cares?  We can't control the weather and we barely predict the outcome. 

God wants you to anticipate what he has in store for you in heaven.  He gives you a picture of eternity.  The New Jerusalem.  This is something that you not only can anticipate, you can count on!

Revelation 21
 ¹⁰And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,  ¹¹having the glory of God Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper.
 ¹²It had a great and high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names were written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel.
 ¹³There were three gates on the east and three gates on the north and three gates on the south and three gates on the west.
 ¹⁴And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
 ¹⁵The one who spoke with me had a gold measuring rod to measure the city, and its gates and its wall.
 ¹⁶The city is laid out as a square, and its length is as great as the width; and he measured the city with the rod, fifteen hundred miles; its length and width and height are equal.
 ¹⁷And he measured its wall, seventy-two yards, according to human measurements, which are also angelic measurements.
 ¹⁸The material of the wall was jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass.
 ¹⁹The foundation stones of the city wall were adorned with every kind of precious stone The first foundation stone was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald;
 ²⁰the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprase; the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth, amethyst.
 ²¹ And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was a single pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.
 ²²I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
 ²³And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb.
 ²⁴The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.
 ²⁵In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed;
 ²⁶and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it;
 ²⁷and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.