Jesse Tree Update

A few weeks ago I wrote about how we wanted to start a new Christmas tradition this year by doing nightly Jesse Tree devotions. Because the ornaments I wanted were pricey, I decided to make my own. So, I enlisted Jen and Erin to join me. We gathered one day while the older kids were in MDO, hired a sitter for the younger kids and went to a coffee shop to craft. We had precut the green felt circles and we would each make three of each ornament. At the end of the day we had completed almost all of the ornaments. We each took home a set to embellish later with embroidery, beads or whatever we had.

Starting December 1 we have done a nightly devotional. There were several different versions of the Jesse Tree so we chose the symbols and stories that we thought would be easiest for our children to understand. Ever night we read a story from one of our children's Bibles. We have 4 Bibles that we read from plus a Jesse Tree devotion. By reading from a children's Bible, the stories are shorter and written in a language that Katherine understands. Plus there are illustrations for her to look at as we read the story. The draw back is that not every Bible includes every story, hence the four Bibles.

The Bibles that we use are The Toddler Bible which is very short, basic stories. This was Katherine's first Bible and I had not planned to use it because they are so short but she went to get it out of her room to read one night. My favorite is The Big Picture Story Bible. It shares the Bible as a narrative that points to Christ which is the point of the Jesse Tree. I love how it is written. It does not have every story though. I also like the Rhyme Bible which we have had on our shelf for a long time but had not really read much. Each story is a long poem. The last Bible we are using is The Bible for Children. I just went to 1/2 price to find any good story Bible to fill in the gaps left by the other Bibles. It has every story but it is written at a higher level than we are right now.

We have our special Jesse Tree set up in the living room so we do our nightly devotions in there. The rule is that Katherine has to get ready for bed first. She is excited about our Bible story so this usually helps her to get ready for bed faster. We are planning to use the Jesse Tree devotions as a way to establish a better ritual for doing a family Bible time each night.
I don't want to paint a perfect picture of our devotion times. They can be a challenge. Katherine loves to read but for some reason she really has a hard time sitting still. She is distracted by the tree and the ornament as well as the fact that our harpsichord is right there and so she wants to sing a song.

After we read the Bible story Katherine gets to hang her ornament on the tree. Every night her goal is to hang the ornament as high as possible.

We are 10 days into it and you can see what our tree looks like so far.
And here are some close ups of some of our ornaments. Some of them are not 100% finished. I had great intentions of spending time each night by the fire embroidering the finishing touches but life is just too busy.

Creation
Adam and Eve and The FallNoah's Ark and the FloodAbraham's tent and a promise of a nationThe sacrifice of Isaac and God's providing of a ram

Jacob's Ladder

Moses and the burning bush

The passover lamb - Katherine was really interested in this story because twice it talked about blood. We talked about the plagues and then about the passover when they put blood on the doorposts. I am not sure why she was so interested in that detail but she keeps asking about the blood.

The 10 commandments and God's lawRahab

Doing our Jesse Tree has been a special time. I really look forward to this becoming a yearly tradition as well as it transitioning into a nightly Bible time.

I have had several other friends start a Jesse Tree this year as well. Melissa and Julie made ornaments by gluing these pages onto wooden disks and then using Modge Podge to seal them. They look really nice. Chrys and her extended family made ornaments that are all different over the holidays. She has done a wonderful job of writing nightly about their devotion. If you have not started the Jesse Tree this year, it is still easy to do. You can even just print off these pictures to have your kids color each night.