Our Advent tradition

 Many people go through great lengths to prepare for Christmas yet fail to appreciate the true meaning of the season.  Advent, if thoughtfully observed, can help us to realize what this season is truly about. 

The Jesse tree represents Jesus' family tree. The name is taken from Isaiah 11:1, in which Jesus is referred to as a shoot coming up from the stump of Jesse, the father of David. The ornaments on the Jesse tree tell of Jesus' ancestors, and of the events leading to Jesus' birth. Even though we can have Peace and Joy through the presence of Jesus Christ, we still long for deliverance from the oppression of sin in the world. We long for the full reign of the King, and the Kingdom of Peace that He will bring. So, while we celebrate the birth, the new shoot from the stump of Jesse, we still anticipate with hope the Second Advent, and await the completion of the promise.

The Jesse Tree helps us retell this story, and express this hope.

 Every year the kids look forward to putting up the Jesse Tree.

We read our devotional every night starting December 1st.

Every night we put up a new ornament corresponding to the Bible story we read.

Many years ago, the mom's in my small group each made several of the ornaments on cardstock and had them laminated.

These have worked fine for the last several years,

but I have been hoping to make smaller fabric ornaments instead.

I made them all in one morning.

They are not perfect, but they will do the job just fine!

This is what we have always used to keep the ornaments in.

I made it out of a vintage tablecloth and felt numbers.

This is our Jesse Tree, but you could use anything, even a branch.

We are all looking forward to filling it very soon!