Happy holiday season to you, dear reader! I think we have a very special issue here. I want to call your attention to a couple of articles. On page 8, Jenna Liechty Martin’s “Wisdom of my children” is a beautiful piece that brought tears to the eyes of more than one of our staff. I was one of the criers. Specifically, Jenna’s example of her daughter washing her feet touched me.

I love that she wrote this piece for our December issue, as we prepare to celebrate Christ’s birth. He, too, surprised, exhausted and inspired his mother.

I can’t ignore the fact that this issue comes to you after an emotional and fraught election season. We know AW readers have diverse political views, as we saw in the responses to our September editorial, which was critical of Donald Trump and evangelicals’ support for him. This month, on page 37, we present a contrasting view, an opinion piece by Levi Miller and Daniel Miller on why they voted for Trump and why many other Anabaptists did as well.

Levi and Daniel write in a spirit of earnestness and humility, wishing to explain their point of view to those who came away from the election disappointed and concerned. Other Anabaptists who voted for Trump might offer different reasons or say things differently. Every group of voters, conservative or progressive, has its own diversity within it.

On the topic of listening to each other and understanding our differ-ences, I appreciate the thoughts of Anna Lisa Gross, who writes for our online column, “Faithful Living and Eating.” On page 51 you can read an excerpt from her Nov. 7 column, “Potlucks and politics”: “Will you be sharing holiday meals with people who voted differently than you? I will and, as usual, I have butterflies in my stomach when I think about it.

“All the people I know, the ones who voted like me and the ones who didn’t, feel like we’re righteous minorities. . . . We have found our place at the table and picked out the foods we like, but we’ve stopped reaching toward the shared platter and looking each other in the eye, at least not often enough to believe we belong together anymore. . . . How can our mealtimes save us from isolation and extremism?”

As we gather to share meals this holiday season, let’s reach across the table with kindness. And take note of who is not there, because some will decide not to participate because it won’t feel safe for them. We may not be likeminded politically, but I believe we can all agree on the importance of truly seeing, knowing and protecting each other.