Celebrating Holidays with Empty Chairs
(Posted November 14, 2024)
One of the most endearing traditions for most families during the holidays take place when we gather as much family and as many friends as we can at Thanksgiving and Christmas.
I know my own memories of these holidays start from the vantage point of me as a six-year-old, peering out from underneath the lace tablecloth where I’d hide as my mother and grandmother set the dining room table. But today that same occasion gives me an entirely different view: that of empty seats, beloved people missing from the day and from our lives. How do we celebrate without them?
Love Remains Constant
The answer is, we don’t. We include all the ones we ever loved by weaving in our departed loved ones in spirit at our Thanksgiving and Christmas events. While at our own tables we let their names enter our talk as easily as if they were passing us the yams. After all, they are as much a part of the fabric of our holiday memories as the scent of the food and inevitable arguments at the table. You see, while in the span of our lives from birth to death, it is a journey of change. But only one thing remains constant. And that one thing is LOVE.
It was Thomas Cambell who truthfully said, “To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.” All we love remains within us, and reminds us what celebration really is.
This Sunday at First Church is Remembrance Sunday
We bring out our Christmas trees and, in preparation before the rest of the decorations go on, we hang small pictures of the people we love but who are spending the holidays with God and the Holy Choir of angels.
Anyone can join us this Sunday. Bring a picture for the tree, and you will receive a little blue votive candle to take home and add to your holiday decorations. This Sunday is contemplative music by Doug and Ginny Hartline, but instead of sadness, it’s one of gratitude for those who forever are part of the fabric of our own lives.
Come join us Sunday at 10 a.m., leave with a blue votive candle, and be grateful for your unseen guests as the holidays arrive.