Day 22: The star

" Then they saw the star they were overjoyed." Matthey 2:10

In a christmas book that we read almost every night one of the pages has a picture of the three wise men on their camels walking across the desert. I ask Eli what they are going to see and what they are following to get there. In his sweet voice he replies "Jeegi" (Jesus) and "tar" (star).

Day 21: The return of the land

" Yes, I am coming soon. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus."
Revelation 22:20

"The Wall of Jerusalem circled the whole city of Jerusalem. God allowed the wall to be torn down by armies when the people of Israel disobeyed. Years later the Wall was rebuilt and the people waited for Jesus to return.

Day 20: The exile

"Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord. " Jeremich 1:8

The fiery furnace is a reminder that we should stand strong in our beliefs and say "no" when you know something is not right in the sight of the Lord.
Daniel 3:19-23

Day 19: Bethlehem

" I can do all things through Chirst who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13

God chose this small town to be the birth place of Jesus. God can do great things in small places and people.

Day 18: The new Covenant

" I will put my law on their minds and write it on their hearts." Jeremiah 31:33

God gave the children of Israel the Ten Commandments to follow but because of our sinful nature we can not always keep these. God still loved them and gave them a New Covenant. Jesus Christ would save us from our sins.

Day 17: The suffering Servant

" I lay down my life for the sheep." John 10:15

Although Jesus was pure and holy and was not part of sin, he took all of our sins on Himself and died on the cross so that we could be forgiven.

Day 16: Gentle Shepherd

"My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me." John 10:27

Just like Kind David use to be a shepherd watching over his sheep protecting them from lions and bears, the Lord was a good shepherd to David. He watched over him and protected him. "If you love and trust Him, you are His sheep. When you hear His voice, you will follow Him in every way. "

Day 15: Prince of Peace

" Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be trouble and do not be afraid." John 14:27

Jesus has many names, one being Prince of Peace. The dove represents Peace and the crown represents a king or prince.
Jesus came to teach us to love one another and give his peace.

Day 14: The Lion and the lamb resting together

" His rest shall be glorious." Isaiah 11:10

One day, when Jesus comes again, our world will be like this again just like it was in the beginning before sin. Lions able to lie with lambs, no hurt, pain, sickness, death, etc.

Day 13: Stump of Jesse

" The Word became flesh and made His dwelling amoung us. We have seen his glory.." John 1:14

Jesse was the father of David, the king who established the royal family, which is where the name Jesse Tree comes from. The stump represents Jesse and the green leaf represents jesus.

Day 12: Josiah Finds the Law

"Your word is a lamp for my feet, and a light on my path." Psalm 119:105

Josiah became king and wanted to clean up the church that his father had allowed to become a mess since he wanted nothing to do with God. While cleaning the church they found a scroll that was the Bible. The people were sorry for their sins (that they had stopped loving God and worshipped idols) God was pleased because they told God that they would serve Him and follow His Laws found in the Bible.

Day 11: King David

"The Lord is my Shephard; I lack nothing." Psalm 23:1

"The giant came to fight God's people, and everyone was afraid of Him except David. David knew that God's spirit was with him and would take care of him. He didnt take a gun but a small slingshot, and with one stone Goliath was hit and fell over dead. Later David became a mighty king because he obeyed God and did the things that pleased him, and through David, Jesus was in the family line to be our King." (Advent Jesse tree book)(1 Samula 17:1-0, 40, 45-50)

Day 10: Canaan, the Promised Land of blessings

"Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits." Psalm 103:2

Moses told twelve spies to go into the Promised Land where they found some grapes and brought them to their families. God told all the people to also go but they disobeyed. Finally after 40 years they obeyed and God led them to the land of blessings.
The awesome thing about this story is that God wants to give us lots of good things but we just have to let Him do it.

Day 8: Ten Commandments

"I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you." Psalm 119:11

The Bible is a great guide for how to live our lives. Long ago God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses. "Jesus is like Moses-freeing us from our sins if we are willing to follow Him." (Advent Jesse Tree Book)

Day 7: Coat of many Colors

"Or that all things work together for good to those that love God." Romans 8:28

Something hard to grasp sometimes is why troubles happen in our lives when we love the Lord. But God promises that he will use everything, even our troubles, for our good if we love Him. In this story Joseph is given a coat of many colors from his father, Jacob. Josephs brothers became very jealous and sold him. God allowed all this horrible stuff to happen but God had a greater plan for him. Joesph became a great ruler in Egypt and was able to help his brothers when they needed help (Joseph forgave them).

Painting

Check out all the paint on his hand. In the past, this is a child that has never wanted a speck of paint on his hand. He always wanted it washed off immediately. But this morning we were able to make some hand prints

Day 6: Jacobs ladder

"I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go." Genesis 28: 15

It is great to know that the Lord is always with you, even when you do feel alone at time, just like He told Jacob in a dream.

Day 5: Isaac and the Lamb

"Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world." John 1:29

This has actually been the hardest one to talk about with a 2 year old. A lot of modifying had to be done with this one because how do you explain that God told Abraham to kill his own son. With the advice of some friends we were able to change it up and talk to Eli about how God wanted Abraham to give Him a gift. And at the very last minute God gave Abraham the gift of the sheep instead because of his obedience. This is a constant lesson for Eli these days as we encourage Eli to listen and obey, which is exactly what Abraham did.

Day 4: The call to Abram

"And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed." Genesis 12:3

God told Abraham to leave all the things that he was comfortable with behind and go to another country. And he was fully trusting and obedient in this calling. Because of this his family was forever blessed. This is a constant prayer for us as we want to strive to be obedient in the Lord's calling in our lives. In the moment it is so much easier to remain in the areas of our life that we are comfortable with but to listen to His call THEN we will be truly blessed.

Day 3: The Ark

"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 6:23
We are so thankful for the Life that we have forever in Jesus because of His promises to Noah when he sent the rainbow after the flood.

This is actually Eli's favorite story in the Bible so far. Everytime we sit down to read he asks for Noah. This ornament was fun to do because everytime we asked Eli how many of a certain animal went on the boat he quickly responded, "TWO." He has learned this number well since we basically drilled him when he turned two years old. :)

Merry Christmas

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Jesse Tree

This Christmas season our family is spending some time doing a Jesse tree. It is a 25 day devotional that prepares us for the coming of Christ. Each day we place an ornament on the tree that goes along with some scripture and questions. There is more involved but we are keeping it simple with Eli this year since he is only 2. Some friends got together to split up making the ornaments and they all turned out so great!!

So far Eli has really enjoyed this time we have as a family. The next day, after we have put another symbol on the tree, he wants to look at it which allows us to continue to ask questions and see what he remembers.


The first night we talked about The Light in Creation and the symbol was the Earth.
"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." Genesis 1:1

I was totally amazed after this night when we asked Eli who made the Earth and he replied, "Jesus."

The Second night was The first Sin and the symbol is an apple and a snake around it.
"We all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turn to our own way." Isaiah 53:6

Just Because

Halloween

I spent some time searching for a costume for halloween but never found one worth spending the money on. So the day of Halloween we wrestled with what we were going to do and what Eli was going to dress up as. After we decided that it would be fun to try trick or treating we came up with the construction worker. He loved it!! We had all the tools, hat, belt, etc. from his birthday and we knew that he would love to hold on to them since he plays when them constantly at home. I think we went to about 6 houses and by the end he kept saying "more houses." He loved that his pumkin bucket was getting full of "something." (not knowing that it was full of delicious chocolate that mom and dad have enjoyed :) ) He did enjoy some smarties and dum dums.