The Jesse Tree – A Journey to the Manger

 

Isaiah 11:1 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:

Last December I stumbled upon the idea of a Jesse Tree at Biblical Womanhood and knew I wanted to incorporate it into our own family traditions. A great opportunity to learn about key events and the lineage of Christ that brought us the birth of the Savior. A perfect way to help keep HIM front and center amidst all the other activities that we are involved in. Often Christians get caught up in the hustle and bustle of shopping, decorations, entertaining and we forget that CHRIST is what Christmas is really all about.

Now we do have many holiday traditions that have nothing to do with our faith and there isn’t anything wrong with that. We do baking, caroling, gift-giving, stockings, parties and dinners. And of course, we have the chocolate advent calendars. Growing up it was always a tradition to finish dinner and then dart down the hall to dig out that chocolate. I’m all grown up with a young family of my own now. We’re certainly keeping that chocolate tradition (mommy included!), but we’ll add a new one too: The Jesse Tree! When daddy gets home, we’ll read our scripture, put up our ornament and then move on to the chocolate.

Since I’ve been busy, I didn’t do a whole lot of advance planning (*sigh*). This year we’re not creating our own fabulous ornaments as some do (great job Stephanie!). We’re making paper ornaments, mounted on construction paper then laminated. I’ve printed the scripture reference (KJV) on the front and the key verse on the back. I’m using the templates here: Advent Reflections and Printable Ornaments. I also found a scripture guideline here and here. Both of these links were helpful but I would just like to say that I am not endorsing either of these sites beliefs’. I didn’t spend any time checking out either of their doctrinal beliefs, I am simply using their Jesse Tree information for reference. I had originally planned to just put our paper ornaments on a poster board paper tree hung on the wall (trying to be frugal), however, I found this little tree at Lowe’s for $4.98 and thought it would suit our needs just perfect!

 

If you able to make the investment, this book looks really interesting and I love the look of these premade ornaments but since we’re trying to watch our spending, my plan will suit us just fine! After all, the focus is Christ right?

The Challenge? Enjoy the season with Christ as our focus!

How can you (or do you!) keep Christ front and center this Christmas?

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