Hello Friends and Family! As we conclude our Christmas season, we hope the service today will guide us into a deeper connection with the reality of Jesus’ birth and how His coming into our world is still impacting people over 2000 years later. We’re so glad you’re with us today. We’ve been praying that you encounter God in a new and fresh way as we focus on the birth of His Son.We know that for many, Christmas can be very complicated and difficult. It’s so hard to experience what our culture describes as the “Christmas spirit” when our lives seem contradictory. That is totally understandable since so many of us have pain we carry from family, relationships, broken dreams, financial difficulty, addiction and hurt. The Good News is that God sent His Son to Earth with a message. It wasn’t a message telling us to “shape up or make changes or get it together.” Instead it was a message declaring that God is with us. He is with you even in the middle of the most difficult of seasons. It’s my prayer during this series that you will discover God’s grace, hope and gift.I invite you to stop by our Next Step Bookstore to look at the books picked for this short series on Christmas. You can also pick up some Lanna Coffee. The proceeds of each purchase go to help the Northern Hill Tribes of Thailand who grow the coffee for their livelihood and benefit our Student Ministries Scholarship Fund.Merry Messy Christmas,Pastor Ron