Looking forward to

I have a friend coming this weekend.  I'm kind of excited about it, not only because she's my best friend who lives far away, but also because she's willing to come to my house.  I live half an hour to forty-five minutes away from my "local" friends and not only do I feel self-conscious about inviting them to come see me, but often times they aren't able or willing to do so.  I mentioned to a friend how I was looking forward to this and it occurred to me how important it is to have something to look forward to. 

I have a feeling that the reason why the day after (or even the afternoon of) Christmas day is so depressing is that we've spent so much time looking forward to it and it's depressing to have it over and done with.  They say that brides often become depressed after they get married because the day they've been looking forward to has passed.  I suspect that it's very important to have days to look forward to with anticipation.  Day to day life can carry with it a feeling of hopelessness.  Having something to look forward to can be motivation to keep going.  And I need motivation right now.

I imagine that may be part of the reason God established days of feasting in the Old Testament.  Mankind needs events to look forward to.  And then it hit me how special it is to be living in this part of history--Christ has come and brought "salvation full and free," and yet the story isn't over yet.  We still have the second coming to look forward to.  Perhaps that's part of why the idea of eternity seems boring--all that time of that same thing.  If we only knew what that "same thing" was like, we wouldn't find even the idea of it to be boring.