Jesse Tree/Advent Calender

I did say in my last post that I wanted to do more writing here about deeper things than just what I've made, but I have been wanting to blog about our advent calender/jesse tree for a while. I worked on the ornaments over several years, mostly because I was making several sets for various family members.

First off, here is the advent calender I made for myself several years ago. When I first made this, I knew I would eventually make some kind of homemade ornaments for each day. I think next year I'm going to add maybe a little chocolate to each pocket or fun Christmas-related activity in addition to the ornament.

When I decided to do ornaments I knew I wanted to do a Jesse Tree. A few years ago, the printable one over at Ann Voscamp's blog was really big, and I used her list of ornaments as my starting place. We tried using her readings once, but the very, very flowery language was a little too much for us. (I know lots of people love her style and that's cool but it just wasn't for us. Hopefully no one will hate me for saying that. ) Plus when I was looking at her list of ornaments, there were some I was very surprised she left out. I mean, there was no reading for the Passover!! The Passover, which is arguably a climax of the OT that has huge Christological implications. Anyway....

So I did some research about Jesse Trees and found some other lists that included different symbols, so I was able to pick and choose the symbols Jeff and I thought were most important. So here is where we landed:


  1. The world - Creation
2. Apple/Snake - the fall
3. Noah's Ark
4. Abram's Tent

 

5. Ram for Isaac
6.Jacob's ladder
7.Joseph's coat of many colors
8.Doorway with blood for the passover
9.Tablets of law for Moses
10.Red rope for Rahab

11. Wheat for Ruth
12. Crown for King David
13. Menorah for Zechariah's prophecy (this is what you get when your husband writes a master's thesis on the topic.)
14. Altar for Elijah
15. Stump for the prophecy about Jesse
16. Heart for the passage in Ezekiel about getting a new heart


17. Lion for Daniel
18. Whale for Jonah
19.City for Micah's prophecy about the city of David
20. Shell for John the Baptist (This one seemed weird to me, but apparently the shell is an ancient symbol for him. And trying to make a felt locust seemed too hard for me.)
21. Lily for Mary
22. Hammer for Joseph

23. (Not pictured because I couldn't find it) Shepherd's crook for the shepherds.
24. Star for the wisemen
25. Manger for Jesus (the symbol on the manger is a symbol for Jesus - The Greek letters Chi and Ro, which are the first two letter of his name.)

If anyone is curious about what passages we used or readings that coordinate in the Jesus storybook bible, let me know I can email you a document. I might also be able to create a PDF with patterns since I still have most of the papers I used as my patterns. If there is interest I can work on it. Just let me know.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I love the Jesse Tree! This was our 2nd year using it and it just adds so much to the Advent season. Hope y'all are doing well!
Jen Clary :)
8:48 PM
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