A Different Chair

It’s hard to believe but we are just days away from Christmas. We’ve already passed Thanksgiving and New Years is just around the corner. But I know you don’t read these posts to figure out what Holidays are coming up. 

Around this time in 2021 I wrote a blog titled “The Empty Chair” about how some folks would face a season of holiday celebrations without a loved one for the first time. Last year I continued to write about that theme with a post called “The Chair Beside the Chair” about the person who would be lonely from dealing with the loss of the one usually seated beside them. Please take a moment to read them from the website if you would like. I will continue the chair idea this year and talk for a moment about a Different Chair. 

In a casual conversation with a much younger co-worker who was experiencing some soreness from coaching his son’s peewee football team, he made the comment “Father Time is undefeated.” We both chuckled and agreed and moved on with our days, sore muscles, aches and pains and all. But it got me thinking especially with all the parties and family get togethers approaching. Maybe it’s not an empty chair you will be facing this year, but perhaps it’s a Different Chair. 

We all face the aging process. Life happens. Accidents affect us, viruses and diseases affect us, sometimes leaving permanent marks on our lives. I help teach a Senior Saints class at my church. They are an awesome group of folks who have taken me in like a son. It hurts me emotionally to see the physical challenges some of those dear folks face. My dad is aging as well. The burly, blue collar guy I knew now struggles to just walk around in the woods. Can’t seem to get up out of his chair without help. Then I look in the mirror and these gray hairs just seem to multiply overnight! I find myself scoping out parking spaces that offer me the easiest path to the store or being quite content to “go to bed with chickens”, literally with me as watch the chickens head into the coop! 

What’s all this have to do with family gatherings and chairs you are asking? Well, there might be a person at your Christmas dinner or whatever gathering finds you in the company of friends and family that have a different chair this year. Maybe an extra space needs to be made for a wheelchair this year. Perhaps it’s a place to sit a walker or cane around the table that wasn’t needed last year. Some folks around you this year may need you to speak a little louder or help them carry that plate of yummy holiday food or lend a hand or shoulder to make it to the table. Someone at your gathering may need help and some extra time to get sore muscles and bones moving when it’s time to leave.  

There’s some good news though. Although the chair may be different this year, the chair is still occupied. Take some time with those in your circles who are aging and chat about holidays past. It will give you a different perspective to speak with those in our lives who faced Christmas in the bleak times of the 1930’s and 1940’s. Capture those family memories and traditions from those who lived them. 

If your aging loved one is a believer, there is even brighter news. Paul tells us in II Corinthians 4:16 – “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.” You see our bodies in this life will decay, become more fragile day by day. But our Spirit, that inner self that Paul speaks of, it is being renewed, made better and brighter through the wondrous work of the Holy Spirit preparing us for the day when this body will pass but our renewed Spirit finds eternal life.  

Lend a hand this season. Move some furniture to make way for us older folks. Chat with us about how it used to be. And know that you too, no matter how young you may be will find yourself the one in the Different Chair someday.