The Empty Chair at Camp

Every hunting camp eventually has an empty chair. The old man who taught half the camp to hunt, the brother taken too soon, the friend whose laugh filled the cook tent — sooner or later, the circle around the fire has a gap in it that everyone sees and no one mentions.Scripture does not treat that gap lightly. Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His faithful servants. Precious — because the servant is coming home. What camp feels as loss, heaven counts as arrival. The chair is empty here because a seat is filled there.Grief and hope are not opposites; the Christian carries both. Grieve the empty chair — Jesus wept at a tomb He was about to open. But grieve as a man with hope, because for those in Christ, the fire hasn't gone out. It has moved to better country, and the ones who went ahead are waiting for the rest of the camp to arrive.Prayer:Lord, You know the empty chairs in my life — the men and women I still miss around the fire.Thank You that death does not get the last word for those who are Yours. Comfort my grief with real hope, and let me live so that my own homecoming will be precious in Your sight. Amen.Challenge:Honor an empty chair this week: tell a story about someone you've lost to somebody who never knew them — a lesson they taught you, a way they shaped you. Keeping their legacy alive is an act of gratitude to the God who gave them to you.