Will there be an empty chair at your table on Thanksgiving Day?

For most families, Thanksgiving Day is a joyous time of year. But there are times when the thought of this special day brings sadness too. For some who are facing the first holiday season with an empty chair at the table, it can feel like a mountain they can’t climb.

I know this feeling. My son, Corey, died on Thanksgiving Day. This Thursday is the thirty-fourth anniversary of his death. The details of that day are seared into my memory. In my mind I can still see and feel it all as I held my fourteen-month-old son as he died that day and we decided to donate his organs. That day I joined an invisible sisterhood of mothers who have lost children. It is a sisterhood of which no one wants to be a part. And it never ends this side of eternity.

Loss of a child is not the only type of grief, I know. There are many different types of losses and many different situations that bring grief.  

What can I say to those who are at the beginning of their journey of grief? To those facing the first year with an empty chair? To those who know their life must go on, but can’t imagine how they can face it?

All I can say is that Jesus, the Prince of Peace, gives me the strength to face each Thanksgiving Day and each day between each Thanksgiving. I’ve learned to pour out all the hurt and sadness to the only One who can help me deal with it. The God of peace gives me the peace of God that nothing else can give.

And He will do the same for every broken heart.

Carla Killough McClafferty

Philippians 4:6-9

6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and pleading with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the

peace of God,

which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 As for the things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the

God of peace

will be with you.