Advent Traditions: The Jesse Tree and the First week of Advent

 The older I get the faster time flies. We used to put our Christmas tree up on Christmas Eve and felt scandalous if we broke down and put it up a few days earlier. But now, Advent seems over almost before it starts and I've decided that to have the decorations up long enough to fill my cup to the brim, I need to start a lot earlier.

So I've embraced the Jesse Tree tradition with gusto. Putting up the tree in time for the first Sunday of Advent makes perfect sense if you are going to slowly journey through the generations before Christ's birth culminating with the coming of Christ on Christmas.

So the tree is up and during this first week of Advent we are reading the first chapter in Christ's family tree book -- Genesis. We started a few days early because we had visiting grandchildren on Friday. So we put up the tree and the oldest plugged it in as we read the creation story -- "...and God said, 'Let there be light.'" After that we read about the creation of the plants and animals: the birds of the air, the creatures of the sea, and all the land animals including the creepy crawlies. (Of course, we have a bee on the tree in honor of our apiary.) And God gave man dominion over them, the responsibility of being a good steward and caring for them with care.