Our Jesse Tree

Last year at about this time, I began to read blog entries about families participating in Advent by making a Jesse Tree. The Jesse Tree is designed to acknowledge the human genealogy of Jesus. I thought it was the perfect way to help focus on the Incarnation of Christ. As I read through some of the instructions available on-line, I was less excited. First, I was about a week and a half too late to start. Second, I stumbled over some of the content. Many of the people, like Joseph of the Coat of Many Colors, Samuel and Jonah are not ancestors of Jesus. Sometime an event, rather than a person was highlighted. For example Creation and the Giving of the Law were included in the genealogy of Jesus. Finally, it really annoyed me that the women Matthew includes in Christ’s genealogy were excluded from almost every on-line resource I read. If the Holy Spirit inspired Matthew to include these women, why would we exclude them? 

Ron had an important role in making our tree a reality. He turned an idea I had and had drawn on Microsoft ®Word 2000 into a reality. Oh, he did redraw it on TurboCad first. Doesn’t he do marvelous work?

Make Your Own

I saw a tree similar to this one when I was searching on-line for ideas. It reminded me of a traditional German feather tree. I just couldn’t resist making one like it. The tree is not very expensive to make. It uses dowels, precut stars and “berries,” and scrap lumber. Marissa and I painted it. When I went to the craft store to purchase the supplies, my total bill was less than $20.

I used the genealogies recorded in Matthew and Luke and the stories in the Old Testament to identify 24 individuals who were ancestors of Jesus. Christmas day is devoted to Jesus’ Nativity. I wrote an introduction to help me stay focused while I was planning.

The Old Testament tells us many things about Jesus including the place and nature of His birth. It relates truths about Jesus life, death and resurrection too. In Ancient Israel heredity was very important, much more important than it would be today. In America we elect our leader. In the United States anyone who is a resident at birth and at least 35 years old can become the leader of our country. But, in Ancient Israel, leaders were leaders because of royal descent. Jesus would only be eligible to sit on the king’s throne and reign forever as the true king of Israel if He were from the line of David.

The Jesse Tree has been a part of Advent since the Middle Ages. The Jesse Tree demonstrates that Jesus had the legal and royal right to the throne of David. Jesus birth fulfilled prophecy.

Marissa and I created a “flip book.” On each page is a photo of the memory ornament that was designed to go with that day, a Bible verse and a short reading. After printing the book, I took it to Office Max. I had them laminate the front and back page and bind the top of the book with a spiral binder. If I had to do it again, I think I would spend the extra money and laminate each page so that it would last through the years.

I didn’t know what I wanted to do about ornaments. Since I had gone against the flow, I didn’t find any on-line sources for those. I ended up searching Internet images and found a jpg-file that would represent that days reading. I printed these on photo paper. All the photos were re-sized so that the longest side was 2.5 inches long. I mounted the photos on gold colored paper that had been crimped and again on black paper. I tied a raffia bow at the top. The ornaments are in a basket next to the tree waiting for the day that they are displayed.

Finally, I started my Jesse Tree reflections on December 1. We got way behind on our reading when Marissa and I had to travel for my uncle’s funeral. When we got back, I decided that I would start a day at sunset. So tonight, we read December 14th. The reason I did this is because our church doesn’t have a Christmas day service. We go to church on Christmas Eve. We will read our final reading about the birth of Jesus and hang our nativity ornament right before we go to church. We do the readings at the dinner table when the whole family is together. We read Christmas cards that were delivered that day at this time too.