As your family sits down to enjoy a meal together this Christmas, spare a thought or prayer for families who have an empty seat at their table where a brave son, daughter, husband, or wife would sit if they were not serving overseas in the military.

Because America enjoys relative peace this Christmas, it’s easy to forget that we are still a country at war. Our troops abroad and their families at home don’t have the same sense of calm that Bethlehem had on a starry night two millennia ago.