BradHoffmann.com

I had a first yesterday. In all my years of Christmas Eve Candlelight Services, someone “unintentionally” caught their hair on fire. I use the word “unintentionally” because there is always the adolescent experiment of singeing forearm hair – please don’t get any ideas for next year. During the Candlelight Ceremony at Sterling (5:15), someone caught their hair on fire. Despite the obvious embarrassment, it is understandable as to how it happen. A parent, turning their head to check on a child, turned in such a way as to expose their hair to the open flame. As most of us know, hair burns at a fast rate especially with accelerants like hair spray. Family responded quickly to extinguish the burning hair. Most attendees probably never even noticed except for the faint odor. I’m glad it turned out as well as it did and no physical harm was experienced. While a number of us got a chuckle out of the whole incident (because this is a great family), it got me to thinking. How many times do we drop our guard in order to make certain our children are alright and functioning appropriately? I’ve been in those candlelight services where I hesitated to give one of my children an open flame for fear they’d burn the church down; observing them while not fully focusing on the flame in my own hand. Parenting can truly be a “hazardous” job.