The Empty Chair

I have so many friends that will be sitting down to Thanksgiving tomorrow with one chair empty. One chair that was meant for a missing son or daughter. One chair that had hopes and dreams for a lifetime that didn’t happen. And that chair sits there so starkly empty that hearts break at every glance.

I can’t imagine it and frankly I don’t want to. When Jesus said you would have suffering in this life I don’t think any of us thought it would be this kind. This kind is just too cruel. It’s too much. It’s more than this life should bear. Ever. I don’t think we understood.

We didn’t understand either when Jesus said the adversary comes to kill, steal and destroy. We secretly thought, hoped, believed, that somehow we were immune – maybe? Maybe a little bit protected from suffering because we belong to God? But think about it. How many times have you heard or quoted that verse – the adversary comes to steal, kill and destroy. There is only three things he wants from you. To steal you away from God, kill you and destroy what's left of your life How crazy is that? We live nice lives in the suburbs, city or country and we meet mostly nice people, say mostly nice things, do mostly nice activities. The thought of an entity salivating to kill us leaves us speechless - we have no place for it. It frightens us, so we choose not to think of it. It makes us vulnerable. Fearful. Sitting in the stew of fear, regret, grief, pain, we cry out, “what is it for?”

Consider this…

Time is not measured by our life span. Our tiny short time here, whether it be hours, days, years or a century and twenty is not how our time is measured. We forget because this life is so physical and constantly barrages our senses with input that this is a tiny portion of it. We are eternal beings from the moment of conception. We never cease to be. I used to get so mad at Paul for saying these things were but a momentary affliction. None of it feels momentary.

Oh but it is. If you have accepted the gift of God’s empty chair in heaven while Jesus walked the earth, you are going to spend eons in a place so incredible that it has taken 2,000 years to get it ready and it’s apparently still not done! Your beloved child is with God’s beloved child and they are filled with such delicious joy that they don’t need the sugar rush of candied yams covered in brown sugar and marshmallows to celebrate. Their every breath is a celebration! What an amazing gift!

I sometimes am amazed by the thought of being eternal. God didn’t have to do that, he could have ended things at the end of this short life and it still would have been worth it to know him as a gracious, loving God. But instead he chose to make us in his image, his likeness, his eternal span and make a place for us to be together. All of us. Together. Forever. Paul wasn’t trying to minimize what we go through here, he was trying to give our hearts peace that a mouthwatering future awaits those of us who cling to the chair that is now filled with the risen Jesus.

As for the darkness of grief that awaits you in the still watches of the night, he made a way for those things too. He sent his son to feel and know every pain, every sickness, every sin, every burden, every temptation, every thing that we purchased when we sold our dominion and our souls over to the devil who has done nothing but greedily grasp for what will never be his – and his rage knows no bounds. And his payment for killing, stealing and destroying will know no bounds. But far more importantly, your Father, your Abba, your Papa, your Daddy, longs to hold you because he knows. Really, really knows. Jesus didn’t come just to know our abstract pain, he came to know your pain. To feel the gut churning, mind numbing horror of it – all the way down to the bottom. Yours AND His. If you will let him, you won’t face that empty chair alone tomorrow. He will hold your broken self and walk with you. He will actually give you thanksgiving in your heart and it won’t be a betrayal of your loved one, it will be the promise of knowing the eternal hope that you carry in your very being and that truly there is reason for giving thanks.

#newyear #resolutions #old