When Empty Stockings Hang

In my heart, there are many rooms and one of my favorite areas is the mantel in the hallway where stockings hang. That hall has innumerable stockings spilling over with fullness. One stocking is filled to the brim with the joys of my marriage. Another stocking is bursting at the seams with blessings of my children and grandchildren. There is another stocking that I take off the mantel frequently…the one most frayed because of the many times I’ve revisited its contents. It is the oldest stocking that hangs in my heart, the one of my childhood with the treasures of my family members. That one never changes because the memories will never fade. I have stockings of precious friends that are beautifully displayed. But then, along with the fullness of those I glance to the end of the mantel and see so many empty ones that hang. There is an empty stocking where loved ones used to fill it up who are now in heaven. Empty stockings of dreams that never came true. They call to me some days, and I cannot help but to focus on them. Why do the empty stockings sometimes look so much bigger than the full ones?

But I am not alone in that area of my heart for as I am considering how those empty stockings hang, He suddenly appears from nowhere. He points to one of the empty stockings and whispers, ‘Oh, that one will not even be able to hold the contents when I fill it.’ He moves ahead of me and partially fills an empty one explaining ‘I am still collecting for this one, but here is a deposit as a guarantee that I will fill it.’ We move together walking down the mantel and I notice that He pulls out more empty stockings and hangs them. He turns to me with that loving look and gracious heart and says, ‘You don’t even know to ask for these.’

I can’t think of a better way to take inventory of what I have been given, what I currently have, and what He has promised me for the future than walking the halls of my heart with Jesus. He promises to justify everything in eternity that wasn’t fair on earth. He promises to fulfill every one of my desires that align with His perfect plan for my life. He promises to reunite me with my loved ones who are waiting for me in Heaven. He promises a life of full abundance in Him if I will trust Him, share time with Him and discover this temporal life through Him. He wants this for me and He wants this for you and that is our greatest filled stocking of all…the beautiful Trinity of our Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

“Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge” Romans 11:13