Jesse tree and Lenten Tree

I spent all of last night looking at information about the Jesse Tree (thanks for reminding me about it Julie). The basic idea is that you use symbols to link to bible stories (and key people in Jesus' lineage) to prepare for Christmas. For example, one day you look at the story of Joseph to show how God provides and you hang an ornament of something like a sack of grain or a coat of many colors. I'm totally going to do it and I'm going to try to do it well. I think I'll do fabric ornaments which will hang on a felt banner on buttons- something like an advent calendar that my grandmother made for us as children. It will be a labor of love to make something like this as a non-crafty person, but I'm going to do it. I'm also leaning towards doing a Lenten tree at the same time. Both of them are ways to follow the Biblical narrative through from Creation to Jesus' fulfillment of it all by his birth and death and resurrection respectively.

What appeals to me is having something physical to go with our daily advent time and I am also drawn to the way that this presents the biblical narrative as a whole. No way for a kid who grows up on this to miss out on how the OT and NT are related.
The Lenten tree uses a cross background (obviously) and the Jesse tree uses the image of a root with a shoot growing up from it from Isaiah 11

Isaiah 11

The Branch From Jesse

1 A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.

2 The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of power,
the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD -

3 and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.
He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
or decide by what he hears with his ears;

4 but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.
He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;
with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.

5 Righteousness will be his belt
and faithfulness the sash around his waist.

6 The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling ^[a] together;
and a little child will lead them.

7 The cow will feed with the bear,
their young will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.

8 The infant will play near the hole of the cobra,
and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest.

9 They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea.

10 In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious.

Isn't that an amazing passage!! Okay, so anyway, here are some links- the first one is the book I want to get to make my own Jesse tree.


The first is a picture of another jesse tree with pdf files of symbols you can use with the readings for each of 25 days.
jesse tree pictures

The next is a chart of key person, event/theme, bible reading, and symbol for example, Abraham/The Promise/Gen 12:1-7, 15:1-6/Stars
jesse tree readings (found at the bottom of the page)

The third are readings/symbols for a Lenten tree- such a nice complement to advent to do something each day during Lent.
lenten tree

Here's a devotional book with readings for adults and kids. There are a few to choose from but I'll probably get one.
Jesse tree devotional readings for adults and kids