Tuesday’s Tip: The Jesse Tree
Welcome to Tuesday’s Tips, a weekly IDEA SWAP for moms. I hope that when you drop by The Overflow on Tuesdays, you’ll find a gold-mine of encouragement and creative ideas excavated straight from the sticky trenches of parenthood.
Of course a SWAP wouldn’t be a true exchange without many voices. So, please consider chiming in the discussion and sharing your own great ideas. If you’ve discovered a tried and true trip that has made motherhood a little easier, a little more exciting, or a bit more meaningful, please let me know. Just leave a comment after this post or send me an email (rbruxvoort@iowatelecom.net) so I can share your idea in the next swap! I’d love to feature you on an upcoming Tuesday. Let the digging begin!
The Jesse Tree
As we enter into the Advent season, I want my children to understand that Christmas is not just a solitary day in December. It is a precious diamond on the string of time that glitters in God’s bejeweled story of love. Over the years, I’ve drafted my own plans and created my own activities to communicate a big-picture view of Christmas, but this year, thanks to a suggestion from my dear friend, Terry, I’m borrowing a fabulous idea from Ann Voskamp called the Jesse Tree. This beautiful farmer’s wife, mama of six, and author of the New-York-Times best-selling book 1000 Gifts beckons us to celebrate the love story that draws worshipers to the manger on Christmas morning by using Christ’s family tree.
If you’d like to check out this free download, just visit Ann’s blog. We erected a tiny tree near our dinner table so we could pause at meals and ponder the beauty of God’s story. The preparation was simple- we just cut out the pre-made paper decorations that correspond with the daily reading and we’re using the free devotional to explore Christ’s family tree through scripture. The scripture and the commentary are all written out for us, so we simply follow along as the story unfolds. Anne’s writing is family friendly, as her musings were written originally for her own children. What I enjoy most is that each day offers a simple application step called “unwrapping the gift” so that we can bring the story to life with our own hands and heart. I love the big-picture view of Christ’s birth and the daily reminder that we are part of a timeless tale.
If you haven’t already begun an Advent devotional, you may want to consider a Jesse Tree. You don’t need a fancy tree- a few twigs in a vase would work, a paper tree hung on the wall, or the Christmas tree that twinkles bright in your home already (surely it has room for a few more decorations.) If the tree sounds too complicated, perhaps you’ll want to consider just using the daily devotional so that your Advent season can be filled with the Word of God. After all, that’s the miracle of Christmas: The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth -Jn 1:14
I love Ann’s musings.. I adapt a bit for the little ones- add some of my own words so they don’t get lost in her poetic style. Don’t worry about doubling up..we may finish our Jesse tree in January.. just trying to do it together at meal times- our tree is right by our dinner table. But the truth is, we’ve missed a bunch.. I figure Jesus can be celebrated far past Dec 25 if need be:)
We have the “paper” variety on the back of our front door 🙂 Does it work for your family to read at dinner time? We are trying to do it at “worship” time in the evening with the kids but seem to miss a night here and there and double up other times. Also, I didn’t download Ann’s – are you liking the devotionals that go along with it?
~Robin
Love it!
I’m very excited to get started!