With all the changes God has made in our lives, it only seems right for Him to change the way we have always done Christmas. After all, we ARE celebrating Jesus' birth! As we have prayed for Him to show us how to celebrate in a very Christ-centered way, He has led us to this thought of Advent. I have always seen these calendars with all the doors that you open (some with candy), but have never really paid much attention to them. Sadly, for us, Christmas has been about decorating, buying presents, getting presents, Christmas movies, music, parties, food, etc... and really NOT about Jesus at all. Of course, I am sure we said He was the "reason for the season" but when I am really honest with myself, I know He never was. So, this year we are changing the way we do everything! Not to be legalistic or pious. But b/c we truly want to celebrate Jesus! We want to focus on Him, not ourselves.
I have been reading a great book by Noel Piper called "Treasuring God in our Traditions" if you don't have it, GET IT! http://noelpiper.com/She really points everything back to the Lord and shows you how traditions should and can be centered around Him. The chapter on Christmas has so encouraged me in centering everything we do this Christmas around Jesus. Advent in Latin means "coming". So I love the thought of looking back to the events leading up to Jesus' birth and then looking forward to Jesus' second coming!
So, all that said...God has given me (through a friend) what I think is going to be an awesome way to celebrate Advent and Christmas. We are going to make a Jesse Tree! For those of you that are confused about what this is, don't feel bad, I was too...
Basically, the concept of the Jesse Tree is based on Isaiah 11:1, and the prophecy that the Savior would come from "the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit." Each day we will place an ornament on our Jesse Tree to represent the events or people we learned about each day through the month of December. The tree becomes a great visual and daily reminder of what we're really celebrating during Advent season. This 25 day celebration is a vehicle to tell the Story of God in the Old Testament, and to connect the Advent Season with the faithfulness of God across 4,000 years of history.
The story of Christmas actually begins in Genesis so that is where we will begin! We will cover significant events throughout the Old Testament — each story pointing to the coming Messiah. It’s like an overview of the whole span of His Story — leading right up to the climax of the coming Christ! Our desire is to not only highlight an important scene from God’s epic in time, but to always unwrap more of Jesus, the gift hidden in every story.
A few friends and I went ahead and made the ornaments ahead of time so we could be ready on December 1st. It was alot of fun getting together and making them! One of my friends put together a blog to take us through each day of December http://www.jesusistherealgift.blogspot.com/, so we are READY! All we need is our tree which we are getting this week. I am so excited about doing this with our children. I want them to grow up seeing us worship our Savior and center what has become a worldly, materialistic holiday, around the real reason for Christmas-JESUS!
I am posting pictures of our ornaments for you to see and get a "feel" for what this will look like...feel free to copy these and make your own!
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