the jesse tree
My wonderful friend told me about the Jesse Tree last week. I had been pondering what to do to make advent meaningful and fun for Tate this year and years to come and this seemed to be just the thing! Surprisingly I had never heard of them. So I ordered an ornament set on Etsy.com on Friday and it came in yesterday already! Dan and I assembled them and did a quick "catch up" on the first four days of advent with Tate tonight.
Here's a brief explanation of what we are doing.
The Jesse Tree represents the family tree, or genealogy of Jesus Christ. It tells the story of God's salvation plan, beginning with creation and continuing through the Old Testament, to the coming of the Messiah. The name comes from Isaiah 11:1, "Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit." (NASB)
Each day of Advent a homemade ornament is added to the Jesse Tree, a small tree made of evergreen branches. These symbolic ornaments can each represent a prophecy foretelling of Christ. Other variations include creating ornaments that represent the ancestors in the lineage of Christ, or using the various monogram symbols of Christianity as handmade ornaments.
The set that we bought came with lovely wooden discs and stickers. It also came with ties to hang them on a tree. A small booklet that includes an Old Testament and New Testament Scripture and brief recap of the story represented on each ornament was also included.
It's a great intro to the Bible for Tate and a great refresher for us!
Here's a fun collage of our activities tonight!
Here's a brief explanation of what we are doing.
The Jesse Tree represents the family tree, or genealogy of Jesus Christ. It tells the story of God's salvation plan, beginning with creation and continuing through the Old Testament, to the coming of the Messiah. The name comes from Isaiah 11:1, "Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit." (NASB)
Each day of Advent a homemade ornament is added to the Jesse Tree, a small tree made of evergreen branches. These symbolic ornaments can each represent a prophecy foretelling of Christ. Other variations include creating ornaments that represent the ancestors in the lineage of Christ, or using the various monogram symbols of Christianity as handmade ornaments.
The set that we bought came with lovely wooden discs and stickers. It also came with ties to hang them on a tree. A small booklet that includes an Old Testament and New Testament Scripture and brief recap of the story represented on each ornament was also included.
It's a great intro to the Bible for Tate and a great refresher for us!
Here's a fun collage of our activities tonight!
I love this! All the Jesse trees I've seen previously were not evergreen trees. I have seen pictures of a few different Jesse trees all made from barren branches of deciduous trees that someone picked out of their yard. This looks much more meaningful, and much more attractive! It will also make for a great annual tradition for you to do with Tate! When Lukas was around Tate's age, we started some great traditions, and, at age 11, he couldn't wait to get them started!
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