Jesse Tree: Part I

Setting the Scene

Last year my sister-n-law introduced me via blog world to her friend who had just created a Jesse Tree. I immediately loved the idea and started an e-mail to myself with links and resources so that by the time advent came around this year I'd actually be ready to pursue some of the ideas. You'd think 11 months would be ample time to get a Jesse Tree together, but I often linger over creative ideas for a long time before responding in a tangible way. Today is Day 1 of our Jesse Tree, so I thought I'd record some of what we're doing so I can come back and remember for next year.

Since I've spent so much time gathering and planting, I thought I'd share some helpful ideas and cites in case there are other people out there interested in the Jesse Tree tradition but not sure where to begin.

As always, Ann Voskamp has recorded some encouraging accounts of her own family Jesse Tree devotionals. And she recently made public her book The Glorious Coming: A Jesse Advent Celebration. This looks great, and I actually looked into purchasing it a few months back, but it was no longer in print. In the mean time, we ended up settling on another list of readings for this year.

Another great Jesse Tree resource is put out by the Reformed Church of America. They have a great list of daily Scripture Readings, though the symbols are a bit abstract and might be more appropriate for older children.

I found these two ladies who created similar lists based on the Reformed Church of America's readings, but geared their symbols a little more towards small children. Hubry and I printed out both of their lists, sat down with our Bibles, and decided which readings and symbols to include for our family devotionals. Below is our finalized list, though we are viewing this year as a trial run and are totally open to changing things around in the following years.


Since we have small children, we will read some of the Scripture verses out loud, but we will primarily focus on reading the corresponding stories in either their Jesus Storybook Bible or Big Picture Bible.

We have been living large in small places for the past 4 years, so a few years ago we bought a little tree that we bring indoors in the winter, put it on some burlap, and call it our "christmas tree."


This is our first year doing a Jesse Tree, and I am not too concerned about having the perfect symbols. Today hubry took Bro out for a while so Songbird and I could make some salt dough ornaments. I was surprised at how much she enjoyed playing with the dough and creating things. I couldn't tell you what it was that she created, but I love that she knows each ornament. I only ended making 7 of the symbols out of the salt dough, and another day we will paint the ones that need some color added.
We are using 25 symbols total, so I have 19 more to come up with. Some will be super simple fabric creations, but others might end up being a drawing on a piece of paper. I kind-of see the symbols as something we'll be gathering slowly year-to-year.