“He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds” (Psalm 147:3)
When he entered a room, his personality filled it. He had a grin that stretched from ear to ear, and a heart as big as Texas that would help anyone in need. One year a couple days before Christmas he drove two stranded strangers whose car had broken down from Elyria to Chicago so they could spend Christmas with their family. He was one of the most straightforward people I have ever met. If you asked him what he thought, you would find out. He wasn’t perfect. His head could be as hard as a rock at times, and he could be as stubborn as a team of mules. But when you met him, you knew that what you saw was what you got. Then suddenly and tragically, our son was taken from us in an accident one week before Christmas. That Christmas, seven years ago, was the first one with an empty chair in our home.
Many of you reading this know what it is like to have an empty chair in your home for Christmas. It may be an overstuffed recliner in your great room, or a ladderback chair at your dining table. It may be a stool at your kitchen island, or a seat at the desk in your office. Wherever the empty chair is, it sits void of an occupant because someone you dearly loved is no longer with you. They may have been a spouse, a child, a parent, a sibling, a grandparent, or a dear friend. You may have lost them this past year, ten years ago, or twenty years ago. The time is not significant. What is important to you is the void and vacancy their passing has left in your heart. You miss them terribly, and you know all too well the words of King David at the loss of his son when he proclaimed, “I will go to him, but he will not return to me.” The empty chair in your home is all too real.
What do we do with the empty chairs we have in our homes this Christmas season? They may be vacated, but they do not have to be unoccupied. Jesus Chris wants to fill our empty chairs with his presence. He wants to come sit, and rest with us in that room that once embraced our loved one’s personality and held their cherished laugh. Jesus wants to show us that we do not have to define our life by our loss. He wants to assure us that he is “close to the brokenhearted” (Psalm 34:18) He wants to remind us that he has promised that “those who mourn are blessed, for they will be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4) He wants to comfort us with the fact that “he will never leave us nor forsake us.” (Deuteronomy 31:8) He wants to fill our void with his love and amazing grace. He wants to give us the gifts of hope and peace. And mostly, he wants to remind us that the day is coming when “He will wipe away all tears from our eyes. There will be no more death, suffering, crying, or pain. Those things of the past will be gone forever.” (Revelation 21:4)
Got an empty chair in your home this Christmas? It’s okay to mourn. It’s alright to weep and grieve. But if you want the comfort you so desperately need, allow Jesus Christ to fill that chair and your heart with his grace.
Darlene