The Jesse Tree (here’s one I did earlier) comprised two bare pronged branches painted a bright green (by yours truly), pushed into a tree stump - and what a great morning we had! We greatly enjoyed another fun-packed All Age Praise at Time for God exploring God’s promises; some from the Old Testament and some in the New (just a few – we only had an hour!). We looked at several readings in the Old and New Testaments; we explored the meaning and the provenance of the Jesse Tree, from Isaiah 11 “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit”.
After that we scampered through bible passages about Creation, Noah, David, Mary and Jesus being the Word and Light of the World. We considered God’s promises, hope, gifts and providence, and thought about our response through obedience, living truly joyful lives and being the presence of Christ in our broken and divided world.
In the meantime, the children prepared and decorated ornaments to hang on the Jesse Tree showing the various facets of all we had been talking about. We sang a mixture of songs to suit both young and not-so-young which covered all the themes contained in the service; Who put the colours in the rainbow?, the Arky, Arky song, Lord’s my Shepherd (modern version), Tell out my soul, Light of the world, and concluded with Colours of Day. Pauline’s prayer time with the children was spent praising God through dance and pretending to be musical statues, in addition to waving the tree decorations and bright yellow balloons saying “Jesus is the Light of the World”.
Phew! Actually, it was wonderful to explore Christian themes in the context of a vastly different style of Christmas Tree, which is now in St. Peter’s Church, by the Tower arch, should you want to visit and have a look.
It might even end up in my sitting room over the Christmas period!
My prayer is, that you all find true joy and the peace of the Christ child in your hearts and homes this Christmas.
Every blessing, Deacon Olivia.
There is more about the Jesse Tree at:
http://maggidawn.com/jesse-tree/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_Jesse
http://www.crivoice.org/jesse.html
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.