I came home late, because Amy had given me a night to myself.

“Go out and enjoy yourself,” she told me.

That means I ate at my favorite restaurant, went to a movie and then walked around the bookstore for a little while.

Yep, I’m a wild man.

When I walked in the door around 10 p.m., Amy looked at me and said, “You need to go back and give Chloe and Cole night-night kisses. They’ve stayed up, refusing to go to sleep until you got home.”

Chloe and Cole’s bedtime is 8 p.m. Thankfully it was a Friday night, otherwise waking them up in the morning would not be a good experience — for them or us.

As I walked down the hall, I expected to find them lying in bed with their eyes open, having fought sleep for two hours. Yet as I neared the turn in the hall leading to their bedrooms, I caught a glimpse of Chloe’s head ducking around the corner. Unbeknownst to Amy, she’d been sitting in the hallway, watching for my return. She scuttled into the bed before I reached her.

Cole wasn’t quite as fast. He was still darting across the middle of his room when I got to his doorway. Like his sister, he’d been sitting in the hall, waiting for me to come back.

I could have gotten on to them for not being in bed, but their actions were so cute and touched my heart so deeply, I couldn’t. They refused to go to sleep because they wanted to see me when I returned. They waited, watched and anticipated.

It made me wonder if we anticipate Christ’s return as much as Chloe and Cole anticipated mine.

Are we watching? Are we waiting expectantly? Does the certainty of his return fill us with excitement or fear?

I don’t know about you, but the thought of Christ’s return fills me with excitement. It fills me with longing. I want him to return. I want him to come back and take me to be with him.

Why? Because I want to be where he is (John 14:3). I want to spend all of eternity in his presence (1 Thessalonians 4:17). I want to look on his face and see him as he truly is (1 John 3:2).

Are you watching and waiting for Christ’s return?

He is coming back, you know. And when he does, those who anticipate his return will not be disappointed.

The Rev. Parrish Myers is a local minister living in Braselton. His column appears biweekly in Sunday Life and on gainesvilletimes.com/life.