The Jesse Tree is basically a visual aid for tracing Jesus' family tree. More importantly, the devotions that go along with it (found here) show God's faithfulness and love for his people through the ages.
I decided that instead of a marathon crafting event where we attempted making all the ornaments in one day, and rather than making an ornament a day for the next month; we would make a week's worth at a time. Here they are so far...
Day One: Stump (representing Jesse), with a chute (representing King David), and the leaf or fruit (representing Jesus). This one consists of 1/2 toilet paper roll, felt, a toothpick, and craft foam.
Day Two: The earth... God's perfect world before sin was allowed to enter in. This one is made from a styrofoam ball, yarn, and craft foam.
Day Three: Apple with a serpent. As you might guess, this is where the villain enters the plot. The thing I like best about the devotion is that it does not focus on the fact that man sinned. It's main focus is that God still loved his creation and provided a promise to them of redemption. The apple ornament is made of craft foam with a plastic snake hot glued to the front.
Day Four: Rainbow. This is when we speak of Noah and God's faithfulness to him. We talked about God's promises to his people, and how he always keeps His word. This one was made solely by Grant, using poster board for the rainbow and felt for the clouds.
Day 5: Camel. The Bible passage was about Abram leaving his home. More importantly, the devotion was about obeying God's commands, even when sin seems so much easier and even more fun. Most important of all was the discussion on how God always loves us and stands ready to forgive. My sad little camel is made of craft foam and felt.
These are all the days we have done so far, and this post is getting mighty long, so I think I will end here for now. If you have always wanted to celebrate Advent with your family, but never knew how to begin, this might just be perfect for you! It isn't too late to start. The devotions are very short, and it would be easy to double up until you were on track! If you are interested in doing a Jesse Tree, but are not of a crafty nature, the link provided above has print outs that can be colored and used as ornaments by themselves.
