It may look like a Credit Crunch Christmas tree, but is in fact a Jesse Tree. I’ve been trying to find ways to help our wee family put a bit more meaning /tradition/fun into our festive season and this was one of the ideas which came my way.
I’m not very good at waiting for things. Toast, buses, babies are all anticipated while fidgeting and checking my watch every few minutes and so advent has never really appealed to me. Why can’t we just go straight to the good bit? But it seems to me that I’ve been skipping to the good bit every year so far and come christmas eve there I am trying to whip myself up into a suitable mood of thankfulness and wonder and it never really works. So I am beginning to think there is a purpose to the slow build up: waiting not as postponement or even preparation but as something that adds value in its own right.
Advent is about watching to see if that which was promised will come, remembering how big and old and long the story of our salvation is. This is the season to remember that God’s plan of rescue for each of us began not in a manger but in a garden. We’re going back to the beginning, walking through history and paying special attention to the whispers, the rumours, the strange signs and wonders that told that someday there would be an Immanuel, God himself with us.
So this morning I armed myself with a hacksaw and battled the rain and gales to whack bits off our poor tree. one hour and a ball of wool later et voila, a Jesse tree. Each day we’ll be reading a story from the good book and then our in-house creative geniuses will be making a symbol of that story and adding it to our tree.
Today, Creation. God makes our world (and us) beautiful and lovely and says that it is good. Caleb did a pretty good job with his drawing of the world, Elijah was a little less optimistic about the state our world is in:
I’m hoping to post every day we do this and no doubt pester power alone will ensure that the stories and felt-tip pens keep coming. So tomorrow join me and my merry men for the Fall…..
