Advent and Christmas Season Grace Bible Writing and Transcription Review and Completion Checkbox / 1
Prayers Before and After Copying the Bible / 2
Pope Francis and the Bible / 3
Beginning to Write the Grace Scriptures for the Advent and Christmas Seasons / 4
Q&A on Writing the Grace Scriptures for Advent and Christmas / 5
Isai Tree and Symbols Coloring Pages / 6
Advent Week 1: The Patriarchs / 9
Advent Week 2: Free People / 25
Advent Week 3: Prophets / 41
Advent Week 4: Poverty / 57
Christmas Day / 73
Feast of the Epiphany / 77
Feast of the Baptism of the Lord / 81

Writing the 'Isa Tree Words' that trace the pulse of salvation history
To rediscover the true meaning of Advent and Christmas

In today's world, where Christmas is commercially exploited, it is difficult to find people who spend the Advent season pursuing the true meaning of Christmas.
If we only focus on the flashy and fancy things that are for show when it comes to Christmas events and decorations, the realization of the meaning of Christmas is likely to take a back seat.
It is said that our ancestors in faith waited for approximately 4,000 years for the coming of the Savior.
And today, we too spend the four weeks of Advent waiting for the Savior together with them.
To deeply engrave this meaning of Advent, we need to remember the history of salvation that God worked to save humanity during the Advent season, and we, along with the patriarchs and prophets, await the coming of the Savior.

To deeply internalize the mystery of Advent and Christmas, our predecessors in the faith held the "Isa Tree" devotional service at home or in church during the Advent season.
The 'Tree of Jesse' is a picture that originally expressed the genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1:1-17; Luke 3:23-38) or family tree in the form of a tree or diagram, derived from the biblical verse in Isaiah 11:1, "A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse, and a bud will sprout from his roots."
The 'Isa Tree' devotion is a family devotion during the Advent season. Every evening, the family gathers together to read and pray for Bible verses that connect the story of salvation, and then hangs the corresponding symbol on the Christmas tree.


Living Bible Society suggests that we, too, follow this example and hold a devotional event called the "Isa Tree" at home, and publishes "Writing the Grace Bible for the Advent and Christmas Season."
This is because through this 『Advent Christmas Season Grace Bible Writing』, we can transcribe, meditate on, and deeply internalize the words of salvation history.

The structure of 『Advent Christmas Season Grace Bible Writing』
Writing the Bible based on salvation history summarizing the 4,000 years of the Old Testament

The core of 『Advent Christmas Season Grace Bible Writing』 is to prepare an attitude to properly wait for and welcome the Lord who comes with the ancestors of faith by writing the Bible every day during the four weeks of Advent according to the history of salvation, which summarizes the 4,000 years of Old Testament history.
Therefore, it is a Bible writing that closely connects and understands the God and His people of the Old Testament, from the original sin of the first human beings and the original gospel, to the patriarchs, the Exodus from Egypt, the covenant with God, life as God's people, the era of the judges, the kings and prophets of the monarchy, and the experiences of judgment and salvation through the Babylonian exile and return, to the birth of Jesus.
In addition, we will also write about the Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, John the Baptist, Christmas, the story of the Magi and the shepherds (Epiphany), and New Testament passages including the baptism of the Lord, who were closest to preparing for the birth of Jesus.
By writing these sections of salvation history in this way, we can grasp the context of the entire history of salvation.
At the bottom of each Bible verse to be transcribed daily, there is a brief explanation summarizing the salvation-historical meaning of the passage.
On the left side of the explanation, there is a picture that symbolizes the words of that day, which helps us to think about the meaning of the written content again.

Decorate or color the 'Isa Tree'

After writing the scripture for that day, color the symbol of that day among the 'Isaiah Tree' pictures in the front.
This Advent calendar also serves as a calendar for Advent. Each day, after transcribing the Bible for that day, you color in a symbolic picture representing the content to complete the writing of the day's scripture.
Just as we decorate a Christmas tree with pretty ornaments and lights, it would be nice to fill this tree with beautiful colors every day.
Of course, beautiful colors and decorations are not the only things that are important.
It is also a good idea to write down the good deeds you will do that day in or around the symbol circle and put them into practice.
By copying the Bible, we can directly encounter God in His Word and color the history of salvation He has unfolded on this earth, thereby filling our hearts with God's love.
For those who feel that this coloring alone is not enough, prepare a Christmas tree the week before Advent and put up a symbol for each day.
This continues until Christmas Day.

Thoughtful details such as weekly sermon guidance, Advent and Christmas season tips, timelines, and icons

『Advent Christmas Season Grace Bible Writing』 is composed of four chapters for the four-week Advent season and a total of seven chapters including the Feast of Christmas, Epiphany, and Baptism of the Lord, which are the goals of the Advent season.
The left page of the introduction to each chapter features a monochrome depiction of sacred images (such as the Isai Tree and images depicting the birth of Jesus before and after his birth), allowing readers to first see and imagine God's salvation history.

And at the top of the right page of the introduction of each chapter, there is a section for coloring the number of Advent candles corresponding to the number of weeks.
In the center is a brief description of the main characters of the week, giving an idea of ​​the biblical text that will unfold later.
The bottom part contains tips explaining key keywords related to Advent and Christmas.
On the far right is a timeline showing the time periods in which the corresponding biblical passages occurred, allowing you to estimate in which period of history the events corresponding to that week actually occurred.

Celebrate family devotion with "Advent Christmas Season Grace Scripture Writing"

For Western Christians, whose Christian culture is the foundation of their lives, the significance of the Advent and Christmas seasons is greater than that of the holiday season, so it is easier to see them searching for the essence of Advent and Christmas than in our case.
The Advent calendar is also much more common, and with it, many practices of devotion to the Isai Tree.
If the Advent calendar is about doing good deeds while counting down the days until Christmas, then the Isai Tree adds family prayer, reading and meditating on the Bible passages that begin with creation and lead to Christmas, to the Advent calendar.
This Isai Tree devotion is a short and easy prayer for families with children to pray together.

『Advent Christmas Season Grace Scripture Writing』 or Setting up an Isai Tree

First, before the first week of Advent begins, prepare the 『Advent Christmas Season Grace Bible Writing』.
It's even better if you have an unadorned Christmas tree (a Christmas tree).
This tree can be made large and ornate, or small and simple, depending on your taste and circumstances.
A tree with bare branches planted in a pot is fine, as is a Christmas tree or an artificial tree.
Alternatively, you can simply make a Christmas tree by cutting thick moisture-proof paper and sticking it on the wall, or use the 'Isa Tree' in 'Advent Christmas Season Grace Bible Writing'.
Prepare a symbol or cut out a picture that represents the word of the day to hang on the tree so that you can decorate the tree every day.
There are symbolic pictures for each day's verse in 『Advent Christmas Season Grace Bible Writing』, so you can refer to them.

Method and order of devotional practices of Isai Tree

For about four weeks leading up to Christmas, the family gathers together every evening, writes and reads a Bible verse with the Holy Spirit, briefly discusses the lessons the verse teaches, decorates the Christmas tree with appropriate symbols representing the verse for the day or colors them in a notebook, and finally sings a hymn.
If you use the 『Advent Christmas Season Grace Bible Writing』, it would be good for the family to take turns writing the Bible each day.
If that's difficult, one person can write it.
The Bible verses and their explanations presented in the notes are read in turns.
It's also a good idea to read aloud together as a family.
If you are doing this devotion alone, you can do it silently, but it is also good to listen to God's words out loud in your own voice.
Then, color the symbol presented and dedicate it with your heart.
It's best to take turns coloring this every day, but it can also be done by one person.
And then they finally sing a hymn.
In families who make a symbol, they hang it on the Isai tree as a sign of devotion.

Advent and the Isai Tree
An image representing the Advent season

In December, the biblical images that traditionally represent the Advent season are the Annunciation and the Christmas tree.
The Isabella Breviary (a 15th-century manuscript of Queen Isabella of Castile's prayer book, considered one of the most precious treasures of the British Library in London for its quintessential display of Flemish art), even contains two themes, the Annunciation and the Isai Tree, in a single painting.
The Jesse tree, which was particularly popular in the Middle Ages, is a literal depiction by ancient and medieval artists of the words of Isaiah 11:1, a metaphorical description of the lineage of Christ beginning with Jesse, the father of King David.

Perhaps the reason Jesse is remembered is because he was the father of King David, the most famous and beloved king in Israel.
In a time when there were no surnames, David was called 'the son of Isaiah.'
Thanks to David, Jesse's name appears in the genealogy of Israel's kings, and Jesus is included among them.
So the classic form of the Isaiah tree is David's father Isaiah lying asleep, with a tree or vine stretching out its 'roots' between his legs.
The tree trunk is lined with the names of numerous Jewish ancestors, and on the last branch of the painting, the Virgin Mary and Jesus are depicted as flowers and fruit.

This painting was also a kind of Bible study picture that visually showed the genealogy of Jesus from the Old Testament to the birth of Jesus, in a time when many people were illiterate.
In Protestantism, many of these were initially destroyed because they were considered to be elements of idolatry, but perceptions have gradually changed and the Isai tree is now widely used in religious education.

However, the genealogy of the Isai tree does not necessarily begin with Isai, but sometimes begins with creation, following the genealogy in the Gospel of Luke, which goes back to Adam and Eve, or with Abraham, following the genealogy in the Gospel of Matthew, which begins with Abraham.
Ultimately, all of this is undoubtedly the genealogy or family tree of Jesus Christ.

This tree was depicted in various forms, but it is said to have been most widely spread in the stained glass windows of medieval European cathedrals.
The starting point of stained glass is said to be the work in the 'Chapel of Our Lady' of the Basilica of Saint-Denis (Basilique de Saint-Denis, Abbot Suger 1081-1151), in Paris, France, which is famous for being the first Gothic cathedral built around 1140.
This cathedral was badly damaged during the French Revolution, but fortunately, some of this work remained, so only the damaged parts were restored (Basilique Saint-Denis, Paris.
The Chapel of the Virgin with the Jesse Tree window circa 1140, donated by Abbot Suger [restored]).
The 'Isaac tree' stained glass, which originated at the Cathedral of Saint-Denis, was introduced and became popular at many cathedrals, including the Cathedral of Chartres (12th century), Strasbourg, Le Mans, Saint-Étienne in Beauvais, Angers, Soissons Cathedral, and the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris (13th century).
Isaiah paintings, popular in France and England throughout the Middle Ages, continued into the 14th and 15th centuries.

You can also see various types of Isai tree art.
It was also expressed in relief decorations on walls, pictorial decorations on murals, ceiling paintings, decorative illustrations on manuscripts such as the Vulgate Bible and prayer books, tapestries, embroidery, paintings, and sculptures (west tympanum of Rouen Cathedral).
The modern family tree also developed from this Isai tree.


The Story of the Isai Tree (Salvation History)

This tree allows us to realize that the God of the Old Testament is the very God who sent Jesus to this world, and to experience the faithfulness of God during the 4,000 years of waiting for the Messiah.

The original sin of the first human race and the first gospel

God, who created the whole world and mankind, proclaimed the first gospel to the first human beings who ate the forbidden fruit in order to become like God: “The offspring of the woman will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15).
After the first human sin, sin flooded the world, and it was finally judged by the flood.
After that, God puts a rainbow in the sky, promising that he will never destroy humanity again.

God's blessing and covenant

Many years later, God chose Abraham and told him and his descendants to be a light to the nations.
The blessing given to Abraham was passed down to his descendants, and by God's providence, Joseph and his family came to live in Egypt.
As time passed, the Israelites (Hebrews) became slaves in Egypt and cried out to God.
God answered:
“I have seen the misery of my people who are in Egypt, and I have heard them crying out at the doors of their taskmasters.
Truly I know their suffering.
“Therefore I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey” (Exodus 3:7-8).
So God entered history in a surprising way to lead them to a place where they could serve Him in peace and joy, instead of having to serve Pharaoh with difficulty.
Israel and God entered into a covenant with each other.
That is, God promised to make them his people, to be with them, and to be their God.

Breach of contract

But “they forgot God” (Psalm 106:21).
They worshipped the idol Baal, whom they considered to be the god who made the land fertile and gave rain.
The contract was broken.
But God remained faithful to these people to the end.
In the Promised Land, God disciplined His people through the surrounding nations, and when they realized their mistakes and turned to Him for salvation, He raised up judges to save them.
After this period of judges, the monarchy began, and the people of Israel received the promise that the Messiah (Christ) would come from a descendant of King David.
Because they had forgotten God, they also forgot to “do justice, love righteousness, and walk humbly with God” (cf. Micah 6:8).
So God sent prophets to warn them that they would not become men of God.
Many prophets proclaimed judgment so that they would repent, turn to God, and live as God's people.
But most people did not heed the prophets' warnings and continued to worship idols, cheat the poor, steal from one another, ignore the needy, and engage in devilish practices.

Judgment, exile, and return

So God left them to their own devices and let them bear the consequences of their choices.
The Babylonian army came and destroyed the temple and the city of Jerusalem, and the people were taken into exile to Babylon.
God's people have now become like the stump of a cut-down tree (Isaiah 5:1-10).

But God did not abandon His people! Even though they disobeyed Him, abandoned Him for idols, and failed to live as His people, God still loved them.
Even in exile, where the future could not be predicted, the prophets again proclaimed new, welcome news.
“God is in this place” (Isaiah 40:1-11).
And the exile is over! God will raise the dead nation again (Ezekiel 37).
In their failure and despair, God appeared again as a leader in history.
As before, they were given another chance to become God's people, not by their own strength, but by the grace of God's forgiveness.

They returned to the land again.
But for years they struggled to live up to their calling.
The kingdom they had sought to reclaim remained nothing more than a dream.
They waited for a new king like David who would lead them to a glorious future, but they continued to be ruled by the Greeks and then the Romans.

Hope and Waiting for the New Messiah

They were disillusioned and discouraged.
So they hoped that God would send them a new king, a savior, to free them from the oppression of the world.
They waited for peace and salvation from the tyranny of a world filled with sin.

God was faithful to his promise to be the God of his people, and a new king was born in Bethlehem.
But we also know that the world is still the same.
Although we can have peace and joy in the presence of Jesus Christ, we still wait for salvation from the sins of the world.
We await God's perfect reign and the kingdom of peace he will bring.
Therefore, as we celebrate the sprouting of the shoot from the stump of Isai, the birth of the branch, we still await the fulfillment of the promise with the hope of a second Advent.
The Isai Tree tells this story again, giving us hope for salvation.