Jesse Tree Day 17 - Birth of Jesus

The birth of Jesus. The kids each designed their own stars to remind them to seek Jesus like the wise men did. We also remember that Herod tried to stand in the way of the wise men finding Jesus and worshiping him and at times in our own lives we have road blocks that are trying to keep us from Jesus.

This ends our study of the Jesse Tree. Many other stories could have been used and perhaps we will take the journey again next Christmas with other, just as important, people of the bible.

Jesse Tree Day 16 - Micah

Micah. Micah was a prophet who foretold where Jesus was going to be born. In Micah 5:2 he writes "But you, Bethlehem, Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times." Micah wrote this about 700 years before Jesus was born!
To mark this important message we made slices of bread because Bethlehem means "house of bread" and Jesus is the "bread of life". The kids bread turned out to be quite a humble slice of bread. It's simpleness summarizes much of how the book of Micah tells us to live our lives, to act justly and love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
After cutting out a slice of bread from card stock we mixed paint. We had no brown paint so we mixed orange and blue. With a dark brown they painted the "crust" on the bread. For the middle they added more orange to make a lighter brown for the inside (whole wheat of course!). When they are dry we will put a string on them and place them on the tree.

Jesse Tree Day 15 - Jonah

Christmas is done but our Jesse Tree is not, so we keep plugging away at it. Thankfully God's word knows no season! Tonight was the story of Jonah. Oh Jonah, you can run but you can't hide. Jonah was to go to Nineveh and tell the people to repent or God would be destroying them. Did Jonah listen? NO. To get his attention God made him miserable with a strong storm at sea, thrown over the side of the ship by his ship mates, and then being swallowed by a large fish. Jonah did come to his senses and go to Nineveh to get the people to repent where God showed his greatness with mercy and forgiveness.

We chose to make fish to remind us to listen to God when he talks to us or he will keep nudging us in the right direction, usually by making us miserable. Not by being swallowed in to the stomach of a fish, but in other, individual ways that let us know He is calling us to act. We also want to remember that God wants to forgive sinners and have them change their ways instead of punishing them.

Making the fish was a lot of fun. First, cut a fish shape out of a piece of tag board. We used mosaic papers cut in half to make the scales. Spark glued his on in rows and Dancer made groups of color coordinated papers and glued them on in groups of four. Trim the sides of the fish so that no scales are sticking out over the edge and it is sleek for swimming through the water. Draw on the fins, tail, and a face. Spark drew glasses on his and three rows of teeth. Dancers is a happy fish complete with an eye lash. Dancer's fish, on top, is Groovy Guppy and Spark's, on the bottom, is Funky Fish. These are quite large but the fish that swallowed Jonah was a really big one!

Jesse Tree Day 14 - Esther

The story of Esther. Esther was able to save her people, the Jews, by being in the position as the kings wife. A position she really wasn't planning on having and starting wheels in motion that she had no idea she could have control of. God can be using us when we don't even see that he is. To mark this story the kids made the star of David. The kids made these by simply making two triangles out of six sticks and attaching them to each other. The triangles should be intertwined but we were not able to make that work with the unbending sticks we used so we just stacked them on top of each other.

Jesse Tree Day 13 - King David

Day 13 was King David. King David was a man who was a great follower of God and he wasn't afraid to show it. He sang loudly and danced delightfully in public to praise God and didn't care who thought he was displaying unseemly behavior.

The kids made crowns to remind us that when praising God it is for a party of one, God, not to worry what those around you think of how you are praising God. Dancer has a beautiful t-shirt that says "Praise God with Dancing" to remind us the rest of the year. Our example was to look at the crowd at a football game. People don't mind looking strange or crazy to support their favorite team, even going so far as to painting their bodies, wearing wigs, etc. Why would we need to be self conscience praising God?

To make the crown we used a flexible but stiff piece of cardboard, a pop case was perfect for this. Cut it out in a crown shape and stapled it in a circle, these are about the size of a half dollar. Then they covered it with tacky glue and sprinkled with gold glitter.

They used red and green glitter glue, we love that stuff, to make emeralds and rubies. Super easy.

Jesse Tree Day 12 - Ruth and Naomi

The story of Ruth. In the beautiful story of Ruth, we focused on the gleaning of the grain that was left, by law, on the edge of the fields and how Ruth was so loving towards Naomi. The kids tied wheat (broom corn in our case) in a bundle with a ribbon. They took a big pile of the broom corn and cut their own amount off of it. I thought it was interesting that Spark took a little bundle and Dancer made a really big bundle. I would have thought it the other way around. The symbol of the wheat will mean for us generousity, thinking of others, being kind and loving, and that family is very important. These are not hung on the tree but rather tucked in the branches.

Jesse Tree Day 11 - Walls of Jericho

The walls of Jericho come tumbling down. The Veggie Tale song goes "Keep walking, but you won't knock down our wall. Keep walking. But she isn't gonna to fall! It's plain to see, your brains are very small. To think walking, will be knocking down our wall. Once that song gets in your head, it is hard to get it back out. Well, the wall does fall thanks to God. To mark this story the kids made little walls of Jericho out of Legos. They decided that the walls would represent humility (it had to be embarrassing walking around out there with people jeering at them and it was probably very dangerous), following God's calling when you don't want to, that God is with us always, and if we trust in him, great things will happen for his glory.

Jesse Tree Day 10 - Moses and the ten commandments

Moses and the ten commandments. The kids have been learning about this at Sunday school so we just read in the bible what the ten commandments were. The ornament today is to remind us to keep God's word for our own happiness and to have the fear of God. These were made out of Sculpey clay. After they were baked, a wire was added to join them together and to act as the hanger. They turned out a lot like stone so it was pretty cool.

The Jesse Tree Day 9 - Moses in the reeds

Day 9 - Moses. We choose to focus on his birth and how all little boys at the time we suppose to be killed. Moses' mother was able to keep him a secret for 3 months and then put him a basket before setting him adrift in the dangerous Nile river. He was then rescued, given back to his mother to be taken care of and later raised by the most predominate family at the time. He goes on to do great works for God. We decided to make a baby Moses in his basket. This will symbolize for us that, even as a baby, God can have great plans for our lives, plans we are being prepared for and we don't even know it. We want to be reminded to always do our best and take each opportunity that is given us assuming that in some way it is readying us to fulfill our jobs for God.

Using a small jar lid for the basket structure, cut out a circle of felt that is big enough to cover the edges of the lid and overlap into the middle of the lid. Glue the lid down to the felt. Fill the middle of the lid with tacky glue and fold the felt inward so that all parts get glue on them and it sticks securely. A little bead with a face drawn on it works well for the baby. Tuck the bead into the folds of the felt so he looks comfy. Cut a little square of felt in another color felt and glue it on for his blanket. Glue a ribbon on the back for a hanger. This was super simple and cost almost nothing.

The Jesse Tree Day 8 - Joseph and his brothers

The story for today was about Joseph. The kids know the story very well and we have studied it a couple of times before. To avoid the same old, same old focus on his coat that is usually thought of when Joseph is mentioned, we choose instead to focus on the sacks of grain he gave to his brothers when the came asking for grain, not realizing it was their brother they were petitioning to. The kids had some great insight on what may have taken place for the brothers, Jacob, Reuben, Simeon, and Joseph. The ornament they made today was sacks of grain. They decided that the sacks would represent humility, forgiveness, guilt, fear, honoring parents, and living and dealing with the retributions of past sins.

Dancer whipped up these little bags on the sewing machine quickly. She had a rectangle piece of fabric and folded each end down the make a casing. Folded it in the middle to make the bottom and sewed up the sides.

Spark threaded a ribbon in the casing with a large upholstery needle.

Next he stuffed them with batting,

and pulled the tops tight.

All that was left was to hang them on the tree.

The Jesse Tree Day 6 - Abraham, Isaac and the Sacrifice

Day 6 - Abraham and Isaac and the Sacrifice. We read Genesis 22:1-19. This passage tells about Abraham trusting God so much even when it seems that God wants him to kill his son as a burnt offering. What God wanted was obedience. When Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son Isaac, God sent a ram to take the place of his son. We made little sheep to remind us just how difficult it can be to live for God and how God sacrificed his own Son for us. Our little sheep were made out of a heavy yarn made into a pompom. The legs are a brown pipe cleaner cut in two and rolled up at the ends to make feet. The eyes are buttons. These were super simple but the symbolism is immense.

The Jesse Tree Day 5 - Promise to Abram

Day 5 was about the call and promise to Abram. Dancer read aloud Genesis 12:1-7 and 15:1-6. These verses tell us about how God made promises to Abram, one of which was that he would have more heirs than the stars he could see in the sky. To symbolize this promise we made tin star hangings. Here is how we did it. Using pie pans draw a star on the bottom of the pan using anything blunt that will leave a pattern of a star but not any ink on the pan. We used the non writing end of a Sharpe. Then using a kitchen shears cut out the stars. First we tried a utility knife, which worked well, but the shears seemed safer and made a nicer cut. Next was to get holes in the tin to be able to attach the stars together with string. To do this we used a needle, put the star on top of a tissue box and pushed the needle through the tin. To save her fingers from a poke, Dancer balled up a tissue and then pushed down on the needle. It was a bit hard to get through the tin. Once all the holes are in the stars, tie the stars together with thread. We used a light blue so that from a distance it is hard to see the thread and it looks like the stars suspended in mid air. These were a bit more difficult than we thought they would be, probably just because of our choice of materials. Spark needed a lot of help but Dancer was able to do it on her own.

Spark brought his rabbit Creamy in the house today. Creamy will open an envelope if you hold it in front of him. He just starts at one end and gnaws his way to the other. Creamy is a pretty big rabbit. If he had long legs he would be about the same size as the dog Nikki. He probably even weights more than she does, he is quite round. Here he is as a baby. This is the only rabbit that comes in the house. Spark became attached to him so he gets played with a lot and is quite tame compared to some of our others.

The Jesse Tree Day 3 - Adam and Eve sin

The third day of the tree is about the fall of Adam and Eve and how sin enters the world. The reading for this day can be Genesis 2:4 - 3:13. We made felt apples to help us to remember to keep our eyes open for sin and stay true to God's word.

Here is how we made them. Draw a simple apple and leaf pattern on paper. Cut out the pattern and pin the apple on two layers of red felt and the leaves on two layers of green felt. Pin the pattern down and cut it out. Pin the two layers of apple together to keep them even when stiching. With embroidery floss make little running stiches around the outside of the apple. Leave a small spot to insert the stuffing. Sew the rest of the way around the apple. Sew the leaves on the top with little stiches so as not to show to much of the red floss. Make a loop in the floss and tie it tight for hanging on the tree. These were really quite simple and took about 10 minutes to complete.

The Jesse Tree Day 2 - Creation Adam and Eve

The second day of the Jesse tree is about the first Father and making the earth. The kids orated the story of the creation and Adam and Eve. The ornament they made was the world. First, they drew the land masses on a Styrofoam ball with pencil. Dad and Spark were really getting into this part, especially over in Europe. Then using blue and green sequence the pinned the sequences into the ball. Not to be out done, Dancer added a blue sequence for the great lakes. They used two packs of 600 pins and several packs of the sequence so it took a lot to get the balls covered. To spare their thumbs they used pencil erasers to push the pins into the balls. To hang it on the tree we will attach a ribbon on the top. The earths turned out really cool and sparkly. They should look great at night with the lights of the tree.

The Jesse Tree Day 1

It has become a tradition that we make a Jesse tree for Christmas and have a daily devotional along with it. The first day is from Isaiah 11:1. For this day we used parchment paper and wrote the verse on it. Then in the kitchen sink we burnt the edges of the paper. This is perched at the very top of our Jesse tree. This year our Jesse is tree is our old 4 foot Christmas tree because the kids also put the decorations they made last year on it and the little tree we used wouldn't have held them all. For the devotional we talked about how Jesus is related to Jesse through his family tree and how we are born into God's family.