noah's ark

So I think that Noah's Ark is in the Top Five best known stories of the Bible (I am guessing CHRISTmas, Easter, Moses and Adam and Eve are on it too)....but it's kinda cool to read it straight out of the Book. Like how God told Noah exactly how to make the ark such as a particular kind of wood and all the dimensions. (which btw, was about 1 1/2 football fields long, almost as wide as one football field and about four stories tall based on one resource) And then.....wow.....being isolated on a boat, crammed with your immediate family for about 150+ days/nights, not to mention a pair of every species of animals (who I am sure were wicked smelly after just the first few days)

YIKES! Can you imagine how tense that might have gotten? I don't know about you.....but I like my space. Gotta give Noah and his family a ton of credit.

So yeah....this is our rainbow, made by moi (that is "me" for all my fellow French Canadians)

..... kinda hard to follow after Hunter's cool serpent/apple ornament. But I guess it works.....I am a huge fan of rainbows....and one always seems to appear at just the right time in my life. ;)

When I see the rainbow in the clouds, I will remember the eternal covenant between God and every living creature on earth.~Genesis 9:16

adam and eve

So tonight's devotion is about the story of Adam and Eve. We will read *the* ultimate lesson about how even though God loved them, they brought sin into the world and needed to punish them for disobeying. (this fits in well with a few of the kids lately).

God also made a promise to them that even though they were sent out of the perfect Eden, He would always love them.

Last year, when Gunner read Genesis 3:1-19......Josh wrapped it up with his version of a valuable lesson...."you see, guys.....it was all the woman's fault."

Hunter was the artist who created this ornament....so far, it's my fave!

creation

The reading tonight was from Genesis....explaining that God is the creator of *all* things.....he made the world and everything in it.

The world is His gift to us.....and he wants us to enjoy it and treat it with care.

So this is our world........as you can see, geography was never one of my better subjects and I do not claim to think that this represents any continent on our earth. In fact, the turnip looking blob that I was picturing as being Africa looks more like South America floating away from North America.

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground........God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.........Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was excellent in every way. ~ Genesis 1:26-31

The Jesse Tree

So this is the first night of our family's Jesse Tree devotional tradition. We are taking 10-15 minutes out of our busy lives to devote to learning the story of God's salvation plan from Creation throughout the Old Testament. (sometimes I have to break up a sibling smackdown and remind them that they have to stop bickering, forgive and love each other...... at least for the next 15 minutes)

I have gathered information off the web with suggested nightly devotions that are short, but give a little lesson with each night's scripture. Then you take an ornament that represents the devotion and hang it on the Jesse Tree. We are going to try to hand make them, but not being super crafty.......we might have a few from Target in the mix. ;)

The devotions "officially" start December 1st, but tonight we read the scripture Isaiah 11:1-2 which as you can see.....explains the meaning of the Jesse Tree.
Tonight's devotion was about how there was a man named Jesse who had seven sons.....the youngest was David. David would later become a great king of Israel.....showing us that God had a plan for Jesse and his son David....even before they were born.
It also explained that Jesus was part of the Jesse and David family tree.....born much later. People were waiting a long time for the birth of the Savior....and the season of Advent is a season for waiting for us too.


Our first ornament is the stump of a tree with a tiny shoot.... representing the new life/new King. (*remember, I am doing the best I can with my lack of craftiness)


Out of the stump of David's family will grow a shoot--yes, a new Branch bearing fruit from the old root. And the Spirit of the LORD will rest on him--the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. ~ Isaiah 11:1-2



I'd love to see anyone else's Jesse Tree creations too....or if you'd like to start this year.....we can do it together! Send me a link to share. :)