The Advent season is upon us! Can you believe it? Are you ready?

I bought an inexpensive live tabletop tree this year, and it’s so pretty. We put it on the table behind our couch, and this tree is going to become more and more special to us as we add to it each day. Why? Because this is our Jesse Tree! Hopefully, after Christmas, we’ll be able to plant it in our yard and always remember the 2006 season of Advent.

If you’re wondering what a Jesse Tree is all about, I’d love to recommend a wonderful resource for you. Ann Voskamp, who writes the inspiring Holy Experience of Listening blog, has written a devotional book for Advent called The Glorious Coming.

This book is so beautiful! Of course, if you’re one of Ann’s blog readers, you know her heart. She’s a homeschooling mother of six, living out her faith on a small Canadian farm, and I’ve been so encouraged by her daily writing.

You can download The Glorious Coming right now in e-book form! And it even contains full-color illustrations by Nancy Rodden which you can print and cut out to make ornaments to decorate your Jesse Tree. Here’s a description of The Glorious Coming from the publisher’s website:

Every family has one: a family tree with its arching branches of grandfathers and grandmothers, its sheltering leaves of aunts and uncles. To make a Jesse Tree is to trace the family line and heritage of the family of God, of human beings from the beginning of time to the coming of God Himself, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.

We will hang the symbols of our story on our corporate Family Tree, the Jesse Tree. We will open God’s Word and read God’s story—our story—as He wrote it on the pages of people’s lives. And Jesus will come to us, and we will come to Jesus.

I’m so excited we’ll be journeying with the Voskamp family this year in celebrating Advent. The devotional readings started November 30th (but you can still jump in!) and run through December 25th, Christmas Day.

I hope your family will also usher in the Holy Season in a special way, whether you decorate a Jesse Tree, light the candles on an Advent Wreath, or read a devotional book together.

Let’s celebrate the coming of our Messiah, Jesus Christ, together this season.

It is time.