The first candle lit! The Advent candle holder is surrounded by a ceramic reindeer village. Don’t ask. :) In the foreground are our hymnals and the devotional we are using this year.
Yes, we are in December already! Where did the time go? Outside there is early snow on the ground and inside we are keeping warm with sweaters and heat dishes.
I dug out our Christmas books last week. We have about 30 titles and I keep them in a storage box and bring them out in December to get into the Christmas spirit. :) I will review them in the next few posts. But today I want to tell you about what we are doing this Advent Season and to review the book we are using for devotions this year.
What is Advent?
The season of Advent in the church year lasts four weeks, starting four Sundays before Christmas. This year, it starts exactly on the 1st of December. It can last between 21 to 28 days and helps Christians focus our attention on the coming celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ which we remember on Christmas Day.
Why We Observe Advent … and How
Observing Advent is relatively new to us. We have only been doing this for a few years, with greater dedication and excitement each passing year.
We started in 2008 when our kids were about 4, 6 and 8. At the time I was running our online bookshop, and came across Jotham’s Journey: A Storybook for Advent. I had never heard about counting down the days to Christmas using a devotional. I had a “duh” moment. Of course I knew the days leading up to Christmas should not just be filled with parties and presents and musicals and church services and not a little chaos. We talk often about “The Reason for the Season”, but to actually and purposefully count down to Christmas with the singular purpose of thinking about Christ each day … Now THAT was a wonderful idea. :)
Advent Season 2013
A few weeks ago, a dear friend suggested to the moms in our homeschool group that we could do an ornament exchange in conjunction with using the Jesse Tree for Advent. She sent some links to groups online who had organised ornament exchanges and the pictures were so enticing that Alethea and I knew immediately it was something we wanted to do. We ended up with three moms and no real system of divvying up the work, but we did it! We are now all ready with our 25 ornaments!
The Advent Jesse Tree
There are many online resources for how to do the Jesse Tree. A very popular one is by Ann Voskamp and is available for free here and here. I’m not sure what the difference is between the two, except the first link has pages to colour your own ornaments.
But being book people, I opted to buy this from Book Depository:
Title: The Advent Jesse Tree: Devotions for Children and Adults to prepare for the coming of the Christ Child at Christmas
Author: Dean Meador Lambert
Illustrator: Ginger Meador
ISBN: 9781426712104
Publisher: Abingdon Press
Each day’s devotion is divided into the following sections:
- Symbol
- Memory Verse
- Hymns to Sing
- Devotion for Children: Scriptures, Devotion, Questions, Prayer
- Devotion for Adults: Scriptures, Devotion, Prayer
I love the simplicity of the devotional. It has everything needed to have a simple but meaningful time with the family – a focus on God’s Word through the reading of Scripture, the singing of hymns, and a short devotional with enough substance to be meaningful, but short enough to keep Daniel’s attention. We have only done the first devotional, since today is the 2nd of December, but I can tell that this is going to be a wonderful resource to use.
The Symbols
The symbols are ornaments you make to hang on your tree to remember the day’s devotion. The chapter titles and the symbols used to represent them are as follows:
- The Light in Creation (a globe or picture of the earth) – you can see the one Alethea painted in the photo at the top of this post
- The First Sin (an apple and a snake wrapped around it)
- Inside the Ark (an ark with a rainbow)
- The Call to Abram (a camel and a tent)
- Isaac and the Lamb (a lamb)
- Jacob’s Ladder (a ladder)
- Joseph’s Coat of Many Colours (a colourful coat)
- Moses and the Ten Commandments (a tablet with ten numbers)
- Canaan, the Promised Land of Blessings (a cluster of grapes)
- Ruth and Boaz (a sheaf of wheat)
- King David (a slingshot)
- Josiah Finds the Law (a scroll or Bible)
- Prophecy of Shoot from the Stump of Jesse (a stump with fresh shoot or green leaf)
- Prophecy of the Lion and the Lamb Resting Together (a lion and a lamb)
- Prophecy of the Prince of Peace (a dove and a crown)
- Prophecy of a Gentle Shepherd (a lamb and a shepherd’s staff)
- Prophecy of the Suffering Servant (a cross)
- Prophecy of the New Covenant (a heart with writing on it)
- Prophecy of Bethlehem (a Bethlehem town silhouette with star)
- The Exile (a fiery furnace)
- The Return to the Land (a brick wall)
- The Star (a star)
- The Light of the World (a candle or light)
- Angels Proclaiming the Coming of Christ (an angel)
- The Birth of Jesus (a baby in a manger or a nativity scene)
It is not too late to get in on the action this Advent. You can use the Ann Voskamp free download and colouring pages, or get this same Advent Jesse Tree devotional on the Kindle for speedy access!
However you decide to spend the next few weeks before Christmas, here is wishing your family a meaningful Advent Season and a Christ-centered Christmas!
