The Jesse Tree is inspired by the prophecy of Isaiah that “a shoot will spring forth from the stump of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots.” The daily readings lead us from Creation through the Old Testament stories and the descendants of Jesse until finally the “Father-King” sends the long-awaited “Son-King” (Jesus) to rescue us.

This is more than just a children’s book. Ann is a gifted storyteller who draws together symbols and fills them with meaning for all ages. Those who read One Thousand Gifts will know that Ann has experienced many years of grief and pain. Perhaps this helps her draw out the deep emotional side to Bible stories. The real sorrow and joy found in these stories can resonate with our present pain and invoke in us a greater longing and yearning for the return of the Son-King, the same anticipation we experience each Christmas.

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Here’s an extract from Unwrapping the Greatest Gift:

In the beginning – that is when this story begins. Which is far better than a story that begins with any old “once upon a time”. This story is better than the greatest fairy tale you’ve ever heard – because this story is all true. And this story is our story – your story.

Your story starts with a kiss. That’s how God made people: He gathered up some dust and dirt. He shaped and sculpted the dirt into what looked like a person – eyes sort of like your eyes and a nose kind of like yours and a mouth a lot like yours – and then the real God, the Father-King of the whole universe, knelt close and closer and closer until His very breath breathed on our skin, and His life and love filled us until we were warm and fully alive! Your story begins with a kiss.

See how everyone everywhere is putting up Christmas trees – tall ones and wide ones and small ones? And when you open up God’s love letter to us, the Bible, do you know what you find? You find the family tree of Jesus. You find the stories that trace the branches of Jesus’s family, the limbs of the tree that go back to His great-great-great-grandfather and to that many-many-many-great-grandmother. And you go all the way back to the very beginning – to our beginning. And when you’re tracing that family tree of Jesus, guess what you find? People who were big cheaters, fighting families, and all the beaten up and brokenhearted. (Ever know any families like that?)

One of those many-many-many-great-great-great grandfathers of Jesus was Jesse. And things got so rotten that his family tree looked more like the stump of a tree cut right off. But out of that chopped-off stump of a family tree came the miraculous impossible, right out of the stump. This budding branch – this green shoot of new hope, new starts, new freedom for the whole family, was Jesus!

If you open these pages every day of December, much like opening the flaps of a calendar counting down the days to Christmas, and you read each story of Jesus’ family tree, and you hang the ornaments from each story on a little (or big or wide or tall) tree of your own, you’ll have what we call a Jesse Tree – a picture of Jesus’ own family tree.

God doesn’t cut off all the big cheaters, bad liars, weaselly sneakers, battling brothers, fighting families and brokenhearted from His family tree – He makes families just like these perfectly His! He adopts all the messy and broken and imperfect people into His tree and His story and His Heart, and He gives us His family name. He gives us His family name. He gives us His absolute perfectness and makes us alive and fully free.

Jesus comes right to your Christmas tree and looks at your family tree and says, “I am your Rescuer, and I will set you free from all the brokenness and sinfulness and sadness. I’ll be the Gift, and I’ll take you. Will you take Me? Will you want Me?”

Come and don’t miss Jesus. Come, and unwrap His story, the most unbeatable, unstoppable, unfailing love story – a story that is better than the best fairy tale, because it’s all true.