Advent - Jesse Tree

blsimpson

blsimpson

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Isaiah 11:1-2, 10 (NLT)
1 Out of the stump of David’s family will grow a shoot—
yes, a new Branch bearing fruit from the old root.
2 And the Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
10 In that day the heir to David’s throne
will be a banner of salvation to all the world.
The nations will rally to him,
and the land where he lives will be a glorious place.

We are starting a new tradition in our family this year, a Jesse Tree, and thought I would share it here, for those that are interested.

What is a Jesse Tree? Its a way to bring Him, the Christ, back into Christmas. To remember that its not the season of giving and getting, or even of family. Even if you take all that away, Christmas still is.

My wife showed me this video the other day, when we were talking about doing this, and it sums it up pretty well.. Jump to 36 minutes, 25 seconds.. Embeded player doesn't want to start there..
And for those that can't see the embedded video: http://youtu.be/8c110ECbQTc?t=36m25s
[video=youtube_share;8c110ECbQTc]http://youtu.be/8c110ECbQTc?t=36m25s[/video]
 
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Be sure to skip to the time bl mentioned... I didn't see that at first and got pretty tired of listening to the ladies talk about their Christmas memories, and the cookies they like, and useless stuff like that.

According to the Wikipedia, historically a Jesse Tree has been a depiction of the line of Jesse/David to Jesus. So, the family tree of Jesus, starting with Jesse. Waaaay at the bottom of the article (it talks about a lot of stained-glass depictions throughout history), it says this:

The secular Christmas Tree, and the Advent calendar, have been adapted in recent years by some modern Christians, who may use the term "Jesse Tree", although the tree does not usually show Jesse or the Ancestors of Christ, and so may have little or no relation to the traditional Tree of Jesse. This form is a poster or a real tree in the church or home, which over the course of Advent is decorated with symbols to represent stories leading up to the Christmas story, for the benefit of children. The symbols are simple, for example a burning bush for Moses and a ram for Isaac
​

This seems to be what the lady is talking about. She says she uses stories from the Bible, and she does not the suggest using the actual lineage of Jesus. So it's not really a Jesse Tree. In fact, it's not a tree at all, figuratively or literally. It's a line, because the stories lead to Jesus. There are no other saviors at the end, and there are no other creations at the beginning. It starts with Adam and Eve and goes to Jesus; God's plan to bring Jesus did not branch. You could call it a Redemption Line or something, to be more accurate, since it "spans the Old Testament," as she says. She talks about Rahab for a long time, who is an ancestor.

No offense bl, but I find her hard to listen to; it's not a style of teaching/preaching I connect with well. It's a very emotional and not very factual monologue, smooshed between warm-fuzzy Christmas dialogue between two ladies. I didn't hear a list of stories she says should be in it. I readily admit may I have missed something she snuck in there, or some more information I skipped that the two ladies brought up in their conversations. Please let me know if I did so I understand this better.

So, maybe I can summarize? Let's make a visual representation of stories that show the work of God leading to Jesus. We'll use a tree branch, because that is a cute winter/Christmas symbol, even though we'll be showing a purposeful line, a destiny, from Adam and Eve to Jesus.We'll hang ornaments on it to depict stories that took place as significant steps along that line.

Heck, take a string of Christmas lights and put paper scenes on each bulb (probably use the low-temp LED variety to be safe). That seems to me to fit the idea just as well, if not better. The Bible illuminates some steps for us of God's plan. Behold, the birth of the Salvation String tradition. :D
 
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