"City sidewalks, busy sidewalks, dressed in holiday style; in the air there's a feeling of Christmas..." I'm writing this on the eve of our first predicted snowfall and two days ahead of Black Friday. I suppose the holiday season really is in the air.

"Hear the snow crunch, see the kids bunch, this is Santa's big scene; and above all the bustle you'll hear... Silver bells." Is that what you hear? Not to be cynical but I've lived in "the city" for a long time and have never heard silver bells while strolling down the street!

While your calendar fills up and your bank account does the opposite, what is it that you hear at Christmas? What do you see? We wanted to ask you these questions starting on this first Sunday of Advent. John, one of the ones to have known Jesus in person while He was here on earth, starts his first epistle by describing what it meant to have God in the flesh living among us...

1 John 1:1-4 (MSG)
"From the very first day, we were there, taking it all in-we heard it with our own ears, saw it with our own eyes, verified it with our own hands. The Word of Life appeared right before our eyes; we saw it happen! And now we're telling you in most sober prose that what we witnessed was, incredibly, this: The infinite Life of God himself took shape before us. We saw it, we heard it, and now we're telling you so you can experience it along with us, this experience of communion with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. Our motive for writing is simply this: We want you to enjoy this, too. Your joy will double our joy!"

This is what we hope to do together this Advent and Christmas season, to really listen to what there is to hear and see what there is to see coming from the Incarnation story. On Sunday, Bjorn will start the "Do You Hear What I Hear" series with a message that brings Mary's story to the forefront - "Trust in Uncertainty". Plus you're going to hear another story from our Freedom family that will help us to launch into these next weeks with our ears really hearing and our eyes really seeing.

Looking forward to Sunday,
. Tracy