Christmas seems a little strange this year. I know that the holiday has been on Sunday before, but this scheduling quirk has left me somewhat disconcerted. Our church is having our annual Christmas Eve service on Saturday evening, and then we’ll gather again on Sunday morning for our regular worship service. Only that worship service won’t seem normal to me since it will be Christmas Day.

My family will gather at our house for dinner after we get home from church, and following the meal we’ll meet in our living room to read the Luke 2 Christmas story and then open our gifts. That part won’t be the same either. You see, this is the first Christmas for my family without my dad (he passed away earlier this summer). My mom will join us for our Christmas festivities, but I know things will be different without Dad around. He loved Christmas, not so much for himself really, but because he loved to watch his family enjoy Christmas.

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Individual adults should never be alone with teenagers.

Certainly this emphatic statement has some validity in today’s sinful society. This world is filled with evil predators that prey on innocent and naïve juveniles. But, actually the problem of adults taking advantage of kids is not what I am talking about—although that situation is horrendous and complex.

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