My 2019 New Year’s resolution was to take up painting in an attempt to begin the process of changing from a "fixed mindset" to a "growth mindset". (If you are curious about what that means, I highly recommend the book Mindset by Carol Dweck.)
While I am really not an artist, I have found painting to be therapeutic for me. My most recent therapeutic painting is titled “The Empty Chair”.
This summer, a good friend who I have known since high school lost her six-year-old son to complications stemming from a congenital heart defect. One of the first images that came to my mind when I read her text, “He’s gone”, was the image of the empty chair.
This was not the first time this image hit me. The first time was almost eleven years ago when I suffered a miscarriage. I realized that, from that moment on, there would always be an empty chair, if not physically (although as a three-person family with a four-person table, it is physically represented in our home), then in my heart at our dinner table. For my friend and others who have lost a loved one, the empty chair will always be present.
Loss is one of the hardest parts of life. It is something we all have in common because the loss of loved ones happens to all of us at some point in our lives. As a believer in Christ, I am so thankful that I can look forward to an eternity where death will be no more and there will be a banquet table with no empty chairs.
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