tree of jesse {a gift for you}

How do we prepare our hearts to receive grace? How can we prepare to enter fully into the feast of our Lord’s birth?

We’re given forty days. Forty days to enter deeply, to prepare a proper dwelling place for Him. And we mark those days remembering the forefathers of Christ, a lineage grown from a lowly root named Jesse. Forty days of climbing, ascending Jesse’s tree – a stump blossomed dwelling place, the womb of a Virgin.

To climb the Tree of Jesse. It’s more than mapping genealogy, storytelling through a family tree. To ascend is to ponder the words of the prophets, to listen carefully to the ways God spoke hope through the ages. We climb this tree to reach the heights of expectation, to gaze upon the centuries of good news foretold – how a Virgin would bear a Son, God made flesh, and dwell among us.

And so, we set our hearts upon an icon, the image of a tree. A humble tree with a man reclined, sleeping at its roots. And nestled in flowering limbs among twelve branches announcing grace, we gaze upon the tree’s fullness – a Rod bearing the long-awaited Flower.

This tree is a story told in brushstrokes, an image of hope fulfilled. Hope grown from a lowly root, watered through the words and lives of the prophets. It’s the story of how Hope blossomed in the humble cave of Bethlehem. And we can prepare to meet Him there, our hearts warmed, branch by prophetic branch. Climbing to behold Christ, through scripture, icon and hymn, making our mystical ascent toward the feast of the Nativity.

The Creator shaped man with His own hands, but when He saw us perishing eternally, He bowed the heavens and came down to earth, and clothed Himself completely in our nature, truly incarnate from a pure and holy Virgin, for He has been glorified!

-Canon of the Matins Service of the Nativity of Christ

I spoke of a gift and now it’s time to do the giving. It’s been two years now. Two years that I’ve tucked words into my heart, scribbled notes on paper and crafted a story for my children. The story’s called The Climb – a once upon a time story of ascent, through the branches of the icon of the Tree of Jesse.

And not too long ago, I would’ve told you that these two years would be going on three, because I didn’t expect to put words on paper – not this year. How this happened during this difficult season – God’s grace. But these weeks of a house hushed quiet in illness have left a mama with much quiet time among sleeping children. And I used it to write – to pull together all those notes and hymns and verses and to tell my children a story.

I’d like to share it with your family too.

I spent two years writing this story and my daughter Emily, she spent two weeks writing this icon. And we ended up with an illustrated children’s book, fifty pages long. It was Saturday afternoon, when I was trying to upload the finished book here, that I found the file was too large – image rich and too many words.

So I had an idea.

A series on evlogia during these upcoming forty days of the Nativity Fast. I took apart that finished book, page by page, and set a chapter to post every Tuesday and Thursday (and a Saturday or two, to fit it all in).Beginning this Tuesday, November 15, the first day of the fast, I’ll share the first chapter of The Climb. And we’ll continue climbing from there.

Today I’m sharing a few things to help you get started – your own copy of the Tree of Jesse icon to print and a set of 14 ornaments for your children to mark their way as you make the climb together. And each post in the series will include a printable version of the story, so your book can continue to grow, week by week. Below you’ll find links that will take you to the printables, along with the first pages of the book – an introduction and suggestions for making the climb. All those details about the hows and whens are included there.

If you’d like to follow the series, you can subscribe to evlogia, the chapters tucked inside your inbox each week as they’re shared. And I’ve created a Tree of Jesse page, a work in progress, under the Just For You tab on the header, a place to keep all the chapters and resources tidy and accessible.

Click here to download a Tree of Jesse icon for your family.

Click to here to download the Tree of Jesse Ornaments.

Click here to download the Tree of Jesse Introduction.

If your family is blessed by this story and you’d like to offer thanks, might I suggest you consider making a donation to IOCC? The amount doesn’t matter, great or small, just so we continue passing on gifts, one heart to another.

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