Take time to remember

Every Christmas is a mixture of the familiar and the unique.
The carols, the holiday lights, and the family gatherings combine to form a ritual that plays out annually.
Every family and every church has its own set of traditions that give us a sense of familiarity and remind us of home.
But within those rituals, each Christmas is unique: The first as a married couple, the first after the birth of a child, the first after the loss of a parent.
Sometimes what’s unique is a matter of chance or accident: The Christmas Eve blizzard, the canceled flight home, the surprise guest.
This year it will be the unshakable feeling of lost innocence as a result of the horrific events in Newtown.
There will be a special poignance to this year’s celebration of that birth so long ago in Bethlehem because 20 small children won’t be celebrating with their families.
And their families’ grief is shared by all of us.
It’s important that we think about them tomorrow as we move through the reassuring and warm rituals and traditions we love so much.
Celebrate — as always — with immense joy, but take a moment to mark this particular day with a measure of sadness.
And pray that no future Christmas will suffer any comparable shadow on our souls. — J.R.[[In-content Ad]]