This service is the last of 2017 and also of our Advent/Christmas season.  Remembering and celebrating the significance of our Savior’s birth helps to propel us into this coming year.  A birth changes things.  Not only is one more life beginning with all the potential inherent within him or her, the immediate family is forever changed.  Someone may be becoming a Dad or Mom or brother or sister for the first time.  Beyond that the status of others is likely changing.  The birth of a baby may be creating a new grandma, a new uncle, a new cousin, etc.  What is so special about the birth of Jesus is that it affects not only the status of a few; it affects the status of many… even you and I.  Galatians 4:4-5 says:  But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, ⁵ to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.  Can there be a greater honor (or status upgrade) that becoming sons/daughters of God?  Thanks be to our Lord Jesus whose birth has made this possible.