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Hello, friend.

This is Max Lakato.

Thanks for tuning in.

It's an honor to be with you.

As we study God's word together,

may our time uplift and encourage you.

If you could use some hope, I pray you find it here today.

Merry Christmas, my friend.

I pray this season brings you joy and peace and the hope that Christ,

who came as a baby, is coming again.

I'm becoming a bit jaded about Christmas letters. You know, these end-of-the-year holiday summaries

that families write and send out, and I don't know, some of these

families, they just seem too perfect to me. Hello, friends. It's been another splendid

year in our household. My husband and I both received promotions and both received PhDs.

I gave birth to twins one week and designed the new city library the next.

Johnny made all-star teams in ten different sports.

Susie graduated suma supadupa. I made that up. We traveled around the

world on a cruise and in-between vacations. We solved world hunger one person at a time.

I'm thinking some of these letters are playing a little loose with the truth.

The truth of the matter is, for most of us, an accurate, honest of goodness, brutally honest,

end of the year holiday letter would include words like discouragement or setback or heartbreak or depression or divorce or death or debt.

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