Advent is the season of hopeful expectancy. As we look towards the cradle, we ponder the notion of God With Us...of the Son of God exchanging all of Heaven to walk among us.
We pause with purpose to fix our eyes on God-Made-Flesh and render our hearts open for all that He wants to do in and through us.
Advent is more than just a celebration or a counting down. It is an arrival. A coming. And while we use this season to remember the Baby of so long ago, His birth was really just a foreshadowing of when He will come again...not as a babe in a manger, but as a Righteous and Glorious King. And it is to THAT coming...that second arrival...that we look to when we celebrate Advent.
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This year, to help my children learn about this One and Only, Glorious King Jesus, we will be meditating on His names during our Advent Coutdown. For a few personal reasons, I have set aside our much-loved Jesse Tree that we've used for the last five years and have created simple, homespun ornaments that each feature a name of Jesus and corresponding Scripture reference.
Someday we might return to the Jesse Tree as I still think it is a wonderful way to quiet ourselves for Advent. But for now, we're content to move forward with this new act of remembrance and worship.
Each day, I plan to place one of these Christmas balls into a gift box and present it to one of my children. He/she will open the box, read the name of Jesus and Scripture verse aloud to the rest of the family, and then place the ornament somewhere on our Christmas tree.
Afterwards, the box will be placed under the tree, refilled with another ornament the following day, and handed to a different child.
Since there are well over 200 names of Jesus (God the Son) in the Bible, I had a difficult time choosing the 24 I wanted to focus our attention. After scouring through His names, I selected my favorites...those that best reflected the Christ of Christmas and those that have meant the most to me recently. Here they are in no particular order. (All Scripture comes from the English Standard Version of the Bible.)
Light of the World
"Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.' ” John 8:12
Christ
"but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." John 20:31
God with Us
" 'Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel' (which means, God with us)." Matthew 1:23
Bread of Life
"Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.' " John 6:35
Cornerstone
"The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone." Psalm 118:22
I AM
"Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.' " John 14:6
Savior
"For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:11
Redeemer
"For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth." Job 19:25
Alpha and Omega
" I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." Revelation 22:13
The Word
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John 1:1
Wonderful Counselor
"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:6
Son of God
"and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, 'Out of Egypt I called my son.' " Matthew 2:15
Prince of Peace
"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:6
Mighty One
"You shall suck the milk of nations; you shall nurse at the breast of kings; and you shall know that I, the Lord, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob." Isaiah 60:16
Messiah
"The woman said to him, 'I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.' " John 4:25
Good Shepherd
"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep." John 10:11
Deliverer
"And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, 'The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob';" Romans 11:26
Everlasting Father
"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:6
Holy and Righteous One
"But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you," Acts 3:14
Immanuel
"Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." Isaiah 7:14
King of Kings
"I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus,who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords," I Timothy 6:13-15
Lamb of God
"The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, 'Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" John 1:29
Lion of Judah
"And one of the elders said to me, 'Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah,the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.' " Revelation 5:5
Jesus
"She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.' " Matthew 1:21
I hope that this new act of celebration will point our eyes on Jesus and help to better reveal Himself to us as we seek to know Him more this Advent season.
Looking for more thoughts on the Names of Jesus to weave into your Advent celebrations? Consider Unwrapping the Names of Jesus, an Advent devotional that focuses on the person and character of the newborn King.
Thank you so much for sharing this! I really appreciate the simplicity of this ♡ I am going to go cut some wood up and use that. My first thought was to run to walmart and buy some ornaments, but in an effort to simplify, I think the wood ornaments will be just fine!
ReplyDeleteI actually saw some super cute wood discs at JoAnne Fabrics that I thought would be perfect for this. They were just cross sections of a tree branch or small trunk. They were too spendy for me, but I did contemplate trying to make a set by myself. I think that would look fantastic!
DeleteThank you for sharing this idea!!! Love this.
ReplyDeleteI think I will use my cricut and cut out some ornaments and write the names.
We keep things simple around here, but I appreciate the focus on WHO Jesus is.
-Gayla
That's sounds like a great plan!
DeleteLove this! I did buy ornaments to make these, I plan on doing this as a yearly tradition for many years so figured the investment was a good one. :-)
ReplyDeleteThat's what I was thinking too. I actually want to go back and buy an extra box or two of the balls in case some break over the years. I might not be able to find the same ones again.
DeleteGreat idea!
DeleteThanks!
DeleteLove. Love. Love. Will figure out a way to do this with my little. Great idea. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome! Wishing you lots of great memories together!
DeleteAbsolutely love this idea!! Planning on heading straight to the store tomorrow to get the supplies. Thank you for sharing :)
ReplyDeleteThank you for providing this! We won't get ornaments made this year, but we started reading one of these and doing our Jesse tree ornaments/reading instead of our usual old and new testament passages during our morning basket time.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great time to do it!
DeleteThis is great! Thanks so much for your servant heart. Wishing you a blessed and joyous Advent. He is coming!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the idea! We took a branch and cut it into cross-cut sections with the chop saw, drilled holes into it with the drill, and are in the process of writing the Names on each one with the Scripture references on the back. I plan to finish them with a clear coat and hang them up with bright red ribbon.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
That's sounds great! I wish I could take a peek at them.
DeleteI love this idea!
ReplyDeleteA beautiful and meaningful set of ornaments and lovely Advent tradition.
ReplyDeleteIt's been really great so far. I can see this one being a family favorite for years to come.
DeleteLove this! Thanks so much for the great idea...and the scripture all typed out!!! We started it right away. They look forward to it each day, so far. And, everyone loved...Cornerstone. It really resonated with all of us. Thanks again!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea! Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI want to look into more Christmas readings. We've done the Jesse tree for years and I'd like to start doing another reading every other year. Thanks for reposting this on Facebook. Just an FYI, the link to Amazon for the devotional isn't working.
ReplyDeleteThat's kind of where we landed with the Jesse Tree too. We enjoyed it, but needed some variety. Thanks for the head's up on the link. It's working on my end, so I'll have to figure out why's it's not working for others.
DeleteI love this. Every year I host a Christmas get together for our pastors and deacons and this will be a wonderful addition as we gather together to celebrate our Lord.
ReplyDelete