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| Thank you for visiting my site. Keep it bookmarked and check back for updates. As a Christian, one of the questions that haunt us every year is how to keep Christ at the center of Christmas. The “Christmas Season” used to start after Thanksgiving. Today, Labor Day seems to be the kick-off. The commercialism of the Christmas Season pulls at us from every direction and it’s difficult to resist every enticement.Although I have devotional aids for other occasions, my main focus is on Christmas because of it's strong secular pull. There is an ample amount of Christmas specials both on television and at the movies, but the best that these secular stories can do after abolishing presents and other pagan customs, is to say Christmas is about family and friends. Christmas is not about family and friends; it’s about the birth of God’s son. If your family and friends are not around, or if you have no family or friends, CHRISTMAS STILL IS.No one knows when Christ was actually born, and it was most likely not in December, but the 25th of December is the day most of the world has put aside to remember His birth, and it has been labeled Christ’s Mass. Anyone claiming to be observing the birth of Christ in this season needs to have a good understanding of why. So what do we need to do to honor God on this day as well as the season? Why did we, and still to this day, need this child to be born? Why was it so important for God’s Word to become flesh?The answers to these questions are woven through the Old Testament in God’s promises, prophecies and miracles. Focusing on these and working on a better understanding will greatly enhance your Christmas season and hopefully help you to abandon some of the materialistic traditions that are dragging you down. We've been doing this for over 15 years and it has worked great for us.Traditions like Advent wreaths and Advent calendars don’t necessarily focus on why the birth of Christ was, and still is, so important. Many people are not even aware of what some of these traditions represent. The Jesse Tree is a way to help children and adults get a better understanding of what and why we are celebrating.Jesse was the father of King David. The idea of the Jesse Tree comes from Isaiah 11:1-9, where God promises a discouraged nation that the glory they remember from David’s time will come again. They will have another king from Jesse’s family, in whose reign the whole earth will know God. As a Christian, we see that promise fulfilled in Jesus, and so we use a Jesse Tree and decorate it with reminders of how God prepared the world for that kingdom.What is a Jesse Tree?
We started our Jesse Tree family devotions over fifteen years
ago, and have used it with children from infancy to age 25. It has helped us
focus on God, and has become the most meaningful tradition of the season. You
too can make the Jesse Tree a tradition that can come to be the most memorable
part of the season. Contact me if you have reached this site and would like more information on the Jesse Tree or family devotions for other times of the year. For questions or comments about this site
click here to send a message to the webmaster. Due to the heavy amount of spam, email links on this site have been temporarily disabled
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Starting on December 1st with an
empty banner or tree, a reminder ornament
is hung each day until Christmas Day when the Christ child in the manger and
star are placed at the top. A Bible verse is read, and the story reviewed.
These devotions allow time every day for sharing with your children, or
meditating with God's Word on your own.
This site will be bringing you Jesse Tree kits as well as devotional aids to help Christians throughout
the year. Finding time to do this has not been easy, but I'm starting with the