As I mentioned in my review, one of my favorite things to do at SDC during OTC is to walk around the park and just enjoy the lights and music. It is just so peaceful, and enjoyable soaking up the SDC Christmas spirit. This year was a bit different though. In Christmases past I have been accompanied on this journey by my oldest son. This year he didn't make the trip with the family, and so I began to experience a bit of melancholy. It is my opinion that only a child is able to experience the pure joy of Christmas. As we get older, Christmas becomes tinged with melancholy. Mainly because of the empty chairs we see around the Christmas table... chairs left by our loved ones who have moved on. First it's grandparents, then aunts and uncles, mothers and fathers, siblings, spouses..... On the other side of the table, the chairs of your own children, chairs once filled with such excitement and mischief, are now sometimes empty because they are off with families of their own. I was standing over by the knife shop thinking about these things, when I began to long for the return of Jesus. When Jesus comes back, every empty chair will be filled again, every thing lost will be restored, all of the tears wiped away. And then the thought came to me...that's what Christmas is all about! We get it backwards when we allow this melancholy and the empty chairs around the Christmas table to rob us of the joy of the season, maybe even to dread the season. Instead, Christmas should remind us that one day all of those empty chairs will be filled. It is because of Christmas that we have this hope! So if you are struggling with the season because of some loss, just remember that it is because of Christmas, that you can have the certain hope that those losses are only temporary, that they will be made up, when Jesus makes his second advent into our world.
