Vacant: a position not filled, empty premises, a person with no expression. How can vacant chairs, houses, and selves be blessings?

Vacant Chairs

All of us have them, the empty chairs at family gatherings: grandparents, parents, sometimes siblings and children. Positions no longer filled. Here’s a story by Heather Thompson Day, published in Christianity Today’s Lent-to-Easter Devotionals, that offers a different take on a vacant chair.

The prompt for Day’s creative writing class was, “Do you forgive me?” In response, a student shared that he had killed a motorcyclist in a car accident. The accident had been his fault; the experience destroyed him. He dropped out of school, pulled away from everyone, and suffered severe depression. 

But then, after two years, he wrote a letter to the man’s parents, expressing sorrow for the accident and grief for their loss. The parents wrote back and invited him to dinner. They gave Day’s student the seat of the son they had lost, shared their food, pictures and stories – that year, and for every year thereafter. 

The vacant chair of one lost son became the redeemed chair of another.

Vacant Houses

All of us have experienced vacant houses where we’ve lived—as in these pictures of my mother’s house when I was camping out in the dining and sitting rooms, overseeing repairs before sale. In Mathew 12:44-45, Jesus offers us a different take on empty premises. It is a demon that has moved out of the “house,” out of a person who then cleans it up; the empty house is swept and put in order. Instead of destructive, the person is free of the unclean spirit because of repentance and belief.

I have fond memories of my childhood home and that time of saying goodbye. For in my vacant, pink-wallpapered bedroom, I saw the first glimmerings of my faith.

Vacant Selves

A vacant stare, a person with no expression. But wait. From a dream I had about being our Alexandria townhouse:

“…my eyes searched the carpeted floor and corn silk yellow walls for signs of furniture, books, or pictures. Nothing. Empty except for my shadow. Suddenly the room filled with dazzling light, and I became a shadow without a shadow. Oddly unafraid, I stood powerless in emptiness.

“…As I stood, emptied out and powerless, my shadow-less shadow surveyed the room bathed in dazzling light. To the right, I saw a panel similar to the one behind bathtub faucets. I turned the clips and lifted the panel door aside. Bowing down as in supplication, I peered into a long, dark passageway without perceptible walls, ceiling, or floor.

“A being spoke, both inside of me and in the distance. Seek.

“…I crawled like a curious child into the passage and woke. Lying in bed, reviewing the details of my dream so I would remember, I was swept with a deep sense of humility about the everything I had not seen.”

Might it be that when we empty ourselves—become vacant selves—we make room for Him and the things not seen?

Linkup with Five Minute Friday: https://fiveminutefriday.com/2025/03/27/fmf-writing-prompt-link-up-vacant-guest-post-by-dawn-fanshawe/