The Jesse Tree Advent

Last year I came across something called the Jesse Tree Project as a form of advent/Christmas devotions.  I think it is basically what my mom did with us several years, but it wasn’t called that.  I knew my kiddos weren’t ready for it last year, but Elaine has been understanding & retaining so much of her church & Bible Time {morning devotions} lessons that I wanted to try it this year.

The idea behind this comes from Isaiah 11:1 – that Messiah will be a rod of the stem of Jesse.  We started with Creation and will explore the Fall, the major patriarchs, and some of the prophecies leading up to the Incarnation of Christ born in the manger in Bethlehem.  As I googled different Jesse Tree reading plans I found that many of them were Catholic.  Some go for more than 24 days.  The version I chose is simplified, and we read the stories from our children’s Bible in order to keep it understandable for Elaine & Nolan.

I purchased my set of figures from Keeping Life Creative.  I love her feltie look printables, and the set was inexpensive.  I cut out and laminated the squares, and added yarn to hang them on the tree.

Because of church and activities, we haven’t been able to be consistent in doing the readings each night, so we have ended up doing two readings when we get to have family devotions.  This actually works out well because I have two kids who both want to hang an ornament!

It’s just one more way to take the focus off of gifts and materialism (which was shoved down our throats since before Thanksgiving this year) and onto the whole reason that we celebrate Christmas – the birth of the Messiah who would take the penalty for our sins.