The Shellys. No, the other Shellys

Since the theme of the Jesse Tree is how God has shown his faithfulness to His people through out the Old Testament, it only makes sense to start with the creation of people. I really liked the Message translation of today's verses, Genesis 1:26-31

26-28 God spoke: "Let us make human beings in our image, make them
reflecting our nature
So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea,
the birds in the air, the cattle,
And, yes, Earth itself,
and every animal that moves on the face of Earth."
God created human beings;
he created them godlike,
Reflecting God's nature.
He created them male and female.
God blessed them:
"Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!
Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air,
for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth."

29-30 Then God said, "I've given you
every sort of seed-bearing plant on Earth
And every kind of fruit-bearing tree,
given them to you for food.
To all animals and all birds,
everything that moves and breathes,
I give whatever grows out of the ground for food."
And there it was.

31 God looked over everything he had made;
it was so good, so very good!
It was evening, it was morning—
Day Six.

Two things really strike me in this translation, first that we're responsible for everything on this Earth. Yeah, we all know this, right? But to see it put like that:
"God blessed them:"Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!
Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air,
for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth."

We have been blessed to take care of the Earth and everything on it, and I know that most of us do and if we could all get one person who doesn't to do one thing, it would make a big difference, all the little things add it. One of the things that has made me really happy over the past few school years is that my school is making an effort to use less paper by laminating daily forms and using the same form everyday, we've also condensed these forms to make less of them. I can't say for sure, but I can imagine that these two things have cut back on a bit of paper consumption.

The second thing that stood out to me was the last verse:
31 God looked over everything he had made;
it was so good, so very good!
It was evening, it was morning—
Day Six.

We are so very good in God's eyes! Even when we're screwing up (which of course hadn't happened at this point and is actually tomorrow's topic) but He doesn't care! He's willing to forgive and forgive and forgive, as many times as we need it, because we're good, so very good to Him. There's a song by David Crowder (and I'm sure many other's but I happen to have the DC version) Everything Glorious and the chorus is "You make everything glorious, and I am yours." Sometimes it's hard for me to believe that I'm right up there with the Grand Canyon or a beach sunset, or what ever people find glorious.

So they symbol for day two of The Jesse Tree is the dove, not the symbol that I would imagine, but Russ's input is:
"The creation as God intended is to live in peace, so the dove as the symbol of creation as God originally intended." (And if I misquoted him, I'm sure he'll reply!)

So, I love Advent and Christmas. I've been secretly listening to Christmas music since October, and not so secretly for the past few weeks. I wanted to do an advent calendar but all the ones that we've seen were too commercial, or had santa all over them. While I love giving (and yes, getting) gifts, I hate that Christmas has become all about waiting...for Santa to come. Yes, we're waiting, but we're waiting for Jesus and waiting to celebrate his birth, not some fat old man with a sack of gifts. Then I remembered having dinner at the Woodworth's house a few years ago and and they had a Jesse Tree, which I thought at the time was pretty neat, and then kinda forgot about until the other day. I had wanted to try to make one to do a little bit with my niece, but seeing as it was Wednesday when I thought of it and she was coming Wednesday night, it wasn't going to happen!
I thought though, that I would still like to do one, but haven't found a pattern for one, so I would do a virtual Jesse Tree instead.

The idea of the Jesse Tree comes from Isaiah 11:1-10:
The Branch From Jesse
A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of might,
the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the LORD—
and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.
He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
or decide by what he hears with his ears;
but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.
He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;
with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.
Righteousness will be his belt
and faithfulness the sash around his waist.
The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
and a little child will lead them.
The cow will feed with the bear,
their young will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
The infant will play near the cobra’s den,
the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea
In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his resting place will be glorious.

The branch out of the stump is a symbol of hope out of discouragement. It's also seen as a way to connect the stories of the Old Testament to the story of Christmas,showing God's faithfulness throughout the years while waiting for the Messiah to come.

The first symbol is the tree: