The Jesse Tree

November 23, 2022

 Every December Jon and I get the kids an advent calendar. When I was growing up we were excited get a tiny piece of cheap chocolate each day but it’s amazing the variety of advent calendars you can get now. They have Dolly Parton ones and artisan cheeses, tackle box and science experiments, rubber ducks and honey. This year we’re getting Linc one with rock gemstones, and Harry Potter socks for Solveig. Our family enjoys spreading the gifts out all month and having a little bright activity to do each day.

     If you’ve learned anything about me yet you’ve probably figured out that I love things that are cozy and I work really hard to make things meaningful. When my kids were young it was important to us that we taught them to take Advent as an opportunity to think of others. So we did a cardboard box as our Advent calendar and every day we put in an item to give away, whether it be a box of cereal or gloves or a toy, and by Christmas we had a full box to donate.

     My absolute favorite Advent tradition is our Jesse Tree. When Solveig was a toddler I gathered branches from our yard and painstakingly hot glued them into a bundle, wrapped them in burlap, and attached frosted pinecones and little bits of twine to the branches. I made little ornaments for each day, and attached a little burlap pouch to the bottom of my Jesse Tree to store them in.

     I remember when we first moved to California I was so offended when someone joked that we had actually spent money to pack and move what he described as “a pile of sticks.” It’s seen better days, but it’s very special to us. Not because it’s always been our tradition, but because of the meaning behind the tradition.

     If you’re not familiar, it’s named after the biblical figure of Jesse, the father of David, who is, of course, the ancestor of Jesus, and  who the Bible often refers to as “The Son of David.” Isaiah 11:1 says “a new branch will grow from a stump of a tree, so a new king will come from the family of Jesse.” The practice of Advent Calendar started in the Middle Ages through the use of stained glass windows. Because most people were illiterate, they used windows as a way to tell the entire Christian story. Eventually, it became a Christmastime tradition to retell the story of Jesus through pictures, becoming the first Advent calendar.

     The word advent comes from the Latin word for “coming.” It’s a season of waiting, of the Earth’s anticipation of the coming of Christ. Our family spends each Advent season using the Jesse Tree to trace the family tree of Jesus, taking 25 days to go back through the entire Old Testament and seeing how how each story is woven together with Jesus as the common thread. We hang ornaments on our Jesse Tree that correspond with a different part of scripture that leads to the birth of Christ, starting at Genesis 1:1. God worked through so many unlikely people, like Leah, who was so undesirable that her father had to trick Jacob into marrying her, or Rahab, who was a prostitute but for some reason chose to help some Israelite spies escape. Story after story, day after day, God uses our practice of the Jesse Tree to remind us of how He plays the Long Game and constantly took things that were meant for harm and remixed them into becoming a part of the story of Christ. Everything -  everything - in the Bible relates back to Christ and God’s incredible rescue plan for us.

     Our first Christmas in Minnesota will look different in many ways, just as it did in California or Dominica or Portland. But our constant each year is that we always take intentional, daily time to refocus on how much Jesus loves us with an extravagant, radical and incredibly detailed love. And whether it’s through something like a Jesse Tree or another cherished tradition, I encourage you and your family to do the same!  

     *If you and your family would like to try a Jesse Tree this year, I suggest using this resource or this resource as a place to start.