Merry Christmas. We miss you. Even more intensely they miss you- your mothers, fathers, spouses, fiancées, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters. Even your pets whimper at the door or walk around lost because you are not here. Christmas is not the same without you and, simultaneously, Christmas is possible because of you
You are in a tent in the desert, a foxhole on a mountainside, beneath the sea in a sub or riding or riding above it in a carrier, in the air in a streaking aircraft, and on the beaches in an ATV. In frigid extremities of the globe, in sweltering stations in the far east, on lonely windswept hillsides in a middle-eastern abyss, and just offshore near the land of the free and the home of the brave. It’s no vacation. You are a soldier, a sailor, an airman, and you are desperately missed…and inspiringly appreciated. 
For every emotional story of a soldier coming home appearing on the jumbotron screen at a football game, a sailor popping out a story-box in an elementary school classroom, or an airman from behind the stage in a special school assembly, we know that there are many more like you who are still out… there. We can only imagine how you feel, as you long for an embrace of the ones you love the most, for a familiar home to rest your weary soul, and the people who make up you own personal community.
When children are racing to their presents on Christmas morning, you will be missing and passionately missed. As your favorite holiday feast is devoured, someone will comment that they wish you were here. As your children kneel down and say their prayers at night asking for your protection and that you come home soon, someone will be in the corner wiping away tears from their eyes.
Everyday, normal Americans like me salute you and thank you. You do not get paid enough for protecting us. The glory you may receive is not enough compensation and always under attack by some pundit with an opinion. Indeed, we have come to take you far too much for granted in the land of the free and the home of the brave.
But right now, we will give you the glory and remembrance you so richly deserve. Thank you for volunteering, for staying, for enduring for the cause of freedom and liberty. Echoes from the mountains to the prairies to the oceans white with foam of these United States Of America is a profound prayer of thanks for all you have done. God has blessed the America you have defended- our home sweet home. God has shed and poured His grace of us. Thank you for being willing to take the punishment for us in order that we may have peace.
In a great sense, the baby of Christmas came to be a soldier, one who fought for our freedom. Not with the sound of crashing cymbals or the mighty thundering steps of marching military. Not with bold flybys and bombing missions. Not with the reconnaissance of clandestine intelligence. Instead, the “punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. He came to grow to be ready to die for my freedom and yours- a task He readily embraced as an obedient Son to a commanding Father. And this year, as we celebrate His birthday, we want you to know that you remind us of Him. We love you and we miss you. Merry Christmas.