Preparation for the Coming of the Lord

Beginning tomorrow, I'll be re-posting my Jesse Tree posts from last year. Each day will include the readings for the Jesse Tree and a picture of the ornament that the girls made for that reading. This activity is a great way to really help your family focus on what we're supposed to be doing for Advent. Not shopping, not rushing about, but looking forward to the coming of Christ. And not His coming as a Baby, which has happened in the past, but His coming in glory at the end of time.

If you look at the readings, even just for Sundays, during Advent, you'll notice a definite "end of time" feel to them. Be watchful! Don't let the Master find you sleeping! Don't rest, thinking your faith is all you need! Don't be a goat - be a sheep!! One might glance at these and think, "This is how they get ready for Baby Jesus?"

But we aren't getting ready for Baby Jesus. We are to be getting ready for Christ the King, the Son of Man who comes in glory and with power. We are to be getting ready for our judgement!

Last year, when I was working for Apple, it was really, really difficult for me to get into Advent with the proper spirit: one of penance and doing without and paring down. On one hand, I was purging the house of unnecessary items and donating up a storm! We were reading our Jesse Tree readings each night and trying to focus on Christ. On the other hand, I was on the phone 20-30 hours a week (or more!), trying to sell lots of stuff to people. (Who buys their five year old a MacBook, anyway??) It was ... fractured. I felt like I was being pulled in two opposite directions.

But this year, I'm finding myself much more calm, much more in the spirit of Advent, and ready to embrace the purple of the season.

We've turned on our lights already (Travel Man worked hard to put them up and get them all to work for me!), and the tree is up, but it is bare. It will be so until Gaudette Sunday - with the exception of the Jesse Tree ornaments, which go up one at a time.

But I do hope you enjoy the postings on the Jesse Tree. If you don't have elaborate ornaments, it's okay. You can get the same effect by using paper ornaments and taping them up on a paper tree on the wall, if you'd like. There's another version here. You can even use the one on this page, which is online. :)

Have a blessed Advent!