Jesus Tree

The Jesus Tree–Day Nineteen

Today’s reading was about the Samaritan Woman at the Well, as recorded in John 4:4-42. The ESV reading was not only long, but it’s also a pretty complicated reading for children, so I was especially grateful to read a simplified version in The Story Bible, as well. For some reason, I had a hard time stopping and explaining the actual text as we were reading, possibly because it was so long.

My symbol for the tree today wasn’t so great. It’s made of dark felt, which makes sense, but doesn’t show up very well against the banner, and even less so in a photo. There were optional suggestions in the directions for adding stones to the base of the well, and shingles to the roof, but my felt techniques were not equal to that task, especially because the pieces would have needed to be so small and so exact. The children still seemed to know what the symbol was, however, so I guess that’s all that really matters!

The Jesus Tree–Day Eighteen

Today’s readings focused on the feeding of the 5,000. We read all three Gospel accounts of this event: Matthew 14:13-21, Mark 6:31-44, and John 6:1-15. I really like this story, partly because of the way Jesus, when approached by His disciples about what to do about the late hour and lack of food, basically tells them: “You take care of it.” John even goes so far as to mention that Jesus was testing the disciples, because, obviously, He already knew what was going to happen. We also took the opportunity to discuss how the feeding of the 5,000 was a.) not a one-time event, as Jesus fed another large crowd (4,000) in the very next chapter of Matthew, (a story also recorded in Mark); and 2.) actually the feeding of many more than 5,000, because only the men were numbered, but there were women and children were there as well. It’s such a familiar story, but still so amazing!

The Jesus Tree–Day Seventeen

Today’s topic was The Lost Sheep/The Good Shepherd. The Bible reading itself was the parable of the lost sheep in Luke 15:1-7, where the shepherd leaves his ninety-nine sheep to search for the one sheep that was lost. Because the topic listed for the Jesus Tree also mentioned the Good Shepherd, I decided that our reading from The Story Bible should be about the Good Shepherd and His Sheep, which is based on John 10:1-18, in which Jesus compares Himself to a shepherd, and us to His sheep. Along with that, we also read the 23rd Psalm from The Story Bible, because it was placed immediately after the Good Shepherd reading. This was a good opportunity for me to flexible in our readings, and add a little something extra that wasn’t specifically suggested–I love improvising!

After our readings tonight, we sang “I Am Jesus’ Little Lamb.” Even though this is a very familiar hymn to the children, it was also a good opportunity to get out our My First Hymnals and use them to sing along. What a great gift those were from our church!

The Jesus Tree–Day Sixteen

Today’s reading was from John 6:22-59. It’s the well-known “I Am the Bread of Life,” passage, in which Jesus tells of the forthcoming Eucharist, even though His listeners didn’t really get it. This is one of only two readings where I couldn’t find a corresponding story in any of our children’s Bibles. I guess that makes sense, because this is a pretty complicated passage, but then again, children understand a lot more than we give them credit for. Anyway, I just made sure we really talked through the ESV reading, since we didn’t also have a simplified version to read and understand.

The Jesus Tree–Day Fifteen

Today’s readings were from Matthew 14:22-33, Mark 6:45-52, and John 6:16-21. These are the accounts of Jesus walking on water. The children were very interested to learn that only Matthew records the part of the story in which Peter asks Christ to allow him to walk out on the water as well, and then has to be rescued by Jesus when he looks at the waves and loses faith. I thought it was interesting that even though this reading directly follows the feeding of the 5,000 in all three Gospels, we won’t be reading that story until Saturday. That actually annoys me a little…I would prefer to read chronologically as much as possible, especially when the two stories are as intertwined as these two are. That’s what I get for not looking ahead in great detail, though…next year, however, I may switch up the order of the readings if only to pacify myself!

The Jesus Tree–Day Fourteen

Today’s reading was about the Good Samaritan from Luke 10:25-37. Reading out loud actually got me wondering…what is the difference between the priest and the Levite in this story? A Levite is a priest, yes? Or at least from the priestly line. I did some cursory research in my Lutheran Study Bible, and all I found in my initial reading of the footnotes is that they’re both temple workers. Even The Story Bible refers to the Levite as “another worker from the temple.” I wonder if there is supposed to be some distinction between the two that I’m just not getting? Maybe I don’t properly understand the difference between a priest and a regular Levite? Or if it’s just a way of showing two people who should have known better than to leave an injured man on the side of the road? I may dig out the Luke commentary later, if I’m feeling intelligent enough for it!

Oh, and there was also a lot of discussion as to whether our symbol was a horse or a donkey. The ESV just says “animal,” and I guess it doesn’t really matter, but small inquiring minds really wanted to know!

The Jesus Tree–Day Thirteen

Today we read about Jesus calming the storm. And again, our readings came from the same three books of the Bible: Matthew 8:23-27, Mark 4:35-40, and Luke 8:22-25. I was struck by how very similar all three accounts are–while they’re not word-for-word the same, I think they’re the most similar out of all of the stories we’ve read so far!

The Jesus Tree–Day Twelve

This morning, we read the story of the ten lepers from Luke 17:11-19. When re-reading the story this evening from The Story Bible, Luke 17:5-6 was also included, which I found interesting. I also find it interesting that Luke includes more stories involving Samaritans than any other of the Evangelists. The only other one who even comes close is John, and John tells a different account altogether. This Lenten activity has been as eye-opening for me as it has been for the children!

The Jesus Tree–Day Eleven

Today’s topic was the Transfiguration. Again, we read from Matthew 17:1-13, Mark 9:2-8, and Luke 9:28-36. I thought it was interesting that, although Jesus instructed His disciples that were with him, (Peter, James, and John), not to tell anyone about what they had seen on the mountain, only Luke specifically mentions the disciples actually keeping silent. Let’s face it–they were an impulsive bunch, (especially Peter!), and even with Jesus’s instructions, I kind of figured word may have leaked out anyway! No Transfiguration account in John, even though, once again, he was a witness to the event.

I have to admit, I was intimidated by making this symbol, because I didn’t want to mess up a likeness of Jesus. I guess it turned out OK, but it could have been better. I do think I would have been more comfortable just doing the light by itself, though!

The Jesus Tree–Day Ten

Today’s readings focused on Jesus blessing the children. We read the accounts from Matthew 19:13-15, Mark 10:13-16, and Luke 18:15-17. The children liked the Luke reading best, because it specifically mentioned infants, and they liked the image of Jesus blessing even someone so tiny as Chickadee. Interestingly, The Story Bible combined Mark 9 and 10 into one story for our evening reading, which actually worked out well, but required a little extra explaining, since there was more information in the story than the children were expecting to hear.