The Jesse Tree
December 5th, 2012
'Tis the season for Christmas decorations, Christmas trees, and craziness in malls around the world. With all the hubbub, it's easy for our focus to stray from what should be central to our Christmas celebration. With that in mind, I wanted to let you know what our family does in the month of December.
A few years ago, someone (and I'm sorry, I'm not sure who it was) gave us a booklet called "The Jesse Tree." Sometime in the last year we seem to have misplaced the book, but there are a lot of resources online that you can use if you want to try out the Jesse Tree for yourself.
Here's what we do. Sometime, weeks, if not months, before Christmas even enters my mind, Nallely will look for a branch we can use for our "tree." On December 1st, the branch is set up. For each of the days leading up to Christmas day, we read specific Bible passages, and place handmade ornaments on the tree that relate to the story. For example, yesterday we read about the Flood, and God's covenant with creation after the flood. So the ornament we placed on the Jesse Tree was a little felt rainbow.
The Bible readings take us from creation to fall to the coming of Christ, His life, His work, and the victory He won. We have two foster boys who are old enough to understand the stories now, so this is a great way to teach them about the Christ whose name is on everybody's lips at this time of year.
Ryan Smith (whose blog is at onechristiandad.wordpress.com) has been posting about what he and his family are doing for family worship during Advent. He's done some great work, and is providing a great resource for families to use at this time of year.
Because Santa isn't the one who deserves all the attention!
"There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of The LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and fear of the LORD" (Isaiah 11:1,2).
A few years ago, someone (and I'm sorry, I'm not sure who it was) gave us a booklet called "The Jesse Tree." Sometime in the last year we seem to have misplaced the book, but there are a lot of resources online that you can use if you want to try out the Jesse Tree for yourself.
Here's what we do. Sometime, weeks, if not months, before Christmas even enters my mind, Nallely will look for a branch we can use for our "tree." On December 1st, the branch is set up. For each of the days leading up to Christmas day, we read specific Bible passages, and place handmade ornaments on the tree that relate to the story. For example, yesterday we read about the Flood, and God's covenant with creation after the flood. So the ornament we placed on the Jesse Tree was a little felt rainbow.
The Bible readings take us from creation to fall to the coming of Christ, His life, His work, and the victory He won. We have two foster boys who are old enough to understand the stories now, so this is a great way to teach them about the Christ whose name is on everybody's lips at this time of year.
Ryan Smith (whose blog is at onechristiandad.wordpress.com) has been posting about what he and his family are doing for family worship during Advent. He's done some great work, and is providing a great resource for families to use at this time of year.
Because Santa isn't the one who deserves all the attention!
"There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of The LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and fear of the LORD" (Isaiah 11:1,2).