Duc in Altum

Our family's devotional discovery this Lent has been the Jesus Tree.  Although similar to the Jesse Tree of Advent, it has some subtle differences that make it more than just a devotion which has been applied to a different season of the liturgical calendar.

Instead, in its own right, the Jesus Tree is a very beautiful devotion that helps mark the days of Lent with stories from the Gospels which cover our Lord's life from His youth through His passion, death, burial, and resurrection. By focusing on Christ's life and death, the devotional focus becomes not on the anticipation of Christ's second coming or His first coming as a baby, but on what He has fulfilled as the One who came to redeem us.

Another way to view the differences is to note that the Jesse Tree of Advent focuses on the roots of Christ's first coming through marking important events of salvation history prior to the birth of Christ.  The Jesus Tree focus on the fruit of His coming, namely, His adult life, passion, death, and resurrection.

In this devotion, during the days of Lent, there are familiar parables such as the Prodigal Son and the Lost Sheep.  The days also focus on Jesus' healing of the 10 lepers, the centurion's servant, and the man with the withered hand.  Finally, the stories include His miracles of changing water to wine, multiplying the loaves and fishes, and raising Lazarus from the dead.  Each of these stories teach about His Kingdom and point the way to why He came--to die and rise again in order to save us from sin.  This theme is underscored by the days of Passion Week which include Palm Sunday, the Last Supper, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday.



If you are looking to add this powerful devotion to your own family's Lenten practices, you might want to consider purchasing the Jesus Tree from Jesse Tree Treasures.  They provide a high quality, well-made Jesus Tree that consists of 64 wooden discs.  The discs have stickers attached with attractive pictures, titles, and Scripture references for the daily devotions for Lent (40 days), the Sundays of Lent (7), and several bonus days (St. Patrick's Day, St. Joseph's Day), and some of the days of the Easter season.  The kit includes a card with each of the days listed along with the story title and Scripture reference for each story.  A bag is provided to keep the discs.  Finally, it was packaged in an attractive cardboard box with an gold elastic band to hold it together.  The high quality certainly adds to the devotional aspect of this version of the Jesus Tree, and the product is very durable and will last for many Lents in the future.


The discs can be used any way you would like.  Two suggestions for use which are listed on the store include adding a magnet to each disc or hanging them from a tree.  We have chosen the latter. Using a small drill bit, holes were put in each disc and a purple piece of ribbon was tied to the discs.  We conveniently have a ficus tree in the front hall which is perfect for hanging the discs.  The discs could also be simply laid on a table each day in some pattern that added to the idea that the tree was growing.  In our case, the ficus tree "grows" with ornaments throughout Lent and even into Easter when our tree will have been decorated with eggs and other Easter decorations.

I highly recommend the devotion of the Jesus Tree for your family's Lent, and I certainly recommend the Jesus Tree from Jesse Tree Treasures as a wonderful way to practice the devotion.


Note, I was given a discount on the purchase of the Jesus Tree from Jesse Tree Treasures as part of my reviewing their Jesus Tree.