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Because the moment she says this, I see it.

I see him.

And Him.

A presence of light that's terrifying in how comforting I find it...right behind my annoyingly gorgeous boss, who's also terrifying, but for entirely different reasons.

Hope suddenly snaps her fingers, and the sound makes me open my eyes.

Uh...

Why do I feel so disoriented? And so inexplicably overwhelmed?

My friend smiles.

I scowl back.

But this only makes her smile widen.

Grrrr.

She's just so different these days. It's as if she knows something that I don't. Something that her husband also knows. And it just makes them socontent—but in a way that has nothing to do with her husband's fortune—and so genuinely kind (you can just feel they're not faking it) and...and so horribly wise, even when they're so swift to say that they don't have the answers to everything.

I mean, have you ever met someone like that?

Someone who says they trust God to actually tell them what to do, and they, you know, actually mean it?

"Stop smiling at me like that," I grumble.

But this only makes my friend ask teasingly, "Dare I make a guess—"

"No. Don't you dare."

"But—"

My phone buzzes.

Oh, thank goodness.

But when I see who's sent me a message—

We need to get back to the office. Work emergency.

I take it back. This is nothing to be thankful about. At all.