On Day 1 of His Creaton of the World, God Created Light.

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ² The earth was without form, and void; and darkness ^[a]was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Genesis 1:1-2.

 

³ Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. ⁴ And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. ⁵ God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. ^[b]So the evening and the morning were the first day. Genesis 1:3-5.

On Day 2 of His Creaton of the World, God Created the Sky or Heaven to Separate the Waters that had been the Stuff of the World.

⁶ Then God said, “Let there be a ^[c]firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” ⁷ Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmamet; and it was so. ⁸ And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day.

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This year, I am celebrating Advent a bit differently than I did last year, Instead of jumping ahead to the stories of Jesus’s Ancestry–the People in His Family Tree–I am spending 1 full week talking about God’s Creation of the World. I see no need to rush through this most significant part of God’s preparation of the World for the coming of His earthly son.

But I heartily recommend the animated videos for The Jesus Storybook Bible, and although I will not be posting daily each day in accordance with that curriculum, I’ll still re-share each of the videos that correspond with that curriculum. Feel free to follow both courses or either one.

I am not sure at what point decided to send His son to be the Forever Saviour of the World. But I believe that God planned to send Jesus to the world FROM THE BEGINNING. 

In the Beginning, the World Was a Dark Void

God’s First Creation was the Light.
The best way to appreciate Light is to try to function without it– to grope along through the Darkness.

In Genesis, God Sent the Light to His World that Had Been Dark.

Many years later, God Sent His Only Son–Baby Jesus– to Provide an Eternal Light for the People of His World.

During the Second Week of Advent, we’ll begin to talk about all the people in the Bible who became Jesus’s ancestors.

Today, I want to talk to you about the Family Tree of Jesus:

What Is A Jesse Tree?

A Jesse Tree is a representation of the Family Tree of Jesus Christ.

Before the first Christmas, Joseph took Mary to Bethlehem for taxation. Joseph and Mary lived in Nazareth, but Joseph’s ancestor King David was from Bethlehem. David’s father was Jesse. One way to celebrate Advent is to retell the Bible Stories of the people who preceded Jesus—the people in His family tree. Afterward. you might consider making an ornament each day for your Jesse Tree. Typically, a Jesse Tree is not the same as a live Christmas Tree. A Jesse Tree represents the past. A dead tree limb with branches is good for a Jesse Tree.

This year, I am creating at least one Jesse Tree outside. For its ornaments, I am creating Birdseed Ornaments. More about all this later, but today, I am preparing my garden so that it will have Jesse Trees for me to decorate.

How to Make Edible Birdseed Ornaments to Hang Outside – Recipe – For the Birds

You might create a sample Jesse Tree from construction paper. Explain how the limbs of the tree are representative of a Family Tree. 

Draw a Tree with no Leaves or Branches:

 Create Your Family Tree as Follows:

Feel Free to Print the Following Blank Family Tree Form and Fill in the Blanks:

Begin to Understand Some of the History of the Bible Lands at the Time of the Birth of Jesus.

Looking Ahead:

⁹ Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. ¹⁰ And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

¹¹ Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. ¹² And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. ¹³ So the evening and the morning were the third day. Genesis 1:9-13.¹⁴

Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; ¹⁵ and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. ¹⁶ Then God made two great ^[d]lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. ¹⁷ God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, ¹⁸ and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. ¹⁹ So the evening and the morning were the fourth day. Genesis 1:15-19.

²⁰ Then God said, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living ^[e]creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the ^[f]firmament of the heavens.” ²¹ So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. ²² And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” ²³ So the evening and the morning were the fifth day. Genesis 1:20-23.

²⁴ Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so. ²⁵ And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

²⁶ Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over ^[g]all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” ²⁷ So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. ²⁸ Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that ^[h]moves on the earth.”

²⁹ And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. ³⁰ Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is ^[i]life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so. ³¹ Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Genesis 1:24-31