My family has loved doing advent devotionals for years, so I decided to write my own. I pray it blesses your family as much as it’s blessed mine.

You can purchase the whole book in print or in an ebook format on Amazon. You can download a printable set of ornaments here or draw or make your own!

Day 6: Jacob’s Ladder

Picture / Ornament: A Ladder

Scripture: Genesis 25:19-26; Genesis 28:10-22; John 1:51

Song: Hark the Herald Angels Sing

Isaac grew up and got married. His wife, Rebekah, had twin sons. They named their sons Esau and Jacob. Before Esau and Jacob were born, God had told Rebekah that her sons would be rivals and that the older son would serve the younger son.

One day when Jacob was on his way to stay with his uncle Laban, he stopped to camp for the night. As he slept, Jacob dreamed of a ladder that reached from earth all the way to heaven. Jacob saw angels of God going up and down that ladder. The Lord, standing at the top of the ladder, repeated to Jacob many of the same promises that He had given to Abraham.

Look at Genesis 28:13-15 and list these promises. God promised to give Jacob and his descendants this land, that Jacob would have countless descendants (as many as the dust of the earth – can you count all the flecks of dust on earth???) and that these descendants would spread to all places on earth. God promised that all the families of the earth would be blessed through Jacob and his descendants. God promised to be with Jacob, to protect him wherever he went and to bring him back to this very land one day. God promised to never leave him and to be faithful to keep all of his promises.

WOW! Our God is always faithful. He is faithful to keep all His promises. We can trust Him.

God appeared to Jacob from the top of a ladder. God is so holy and perfect that we cannot reach Him by our own human efforts.

Ladders connect us with things that are beyond our human reach. I often need to use a ladder to change a light bulb or to reach a dish kept up in a high cabinet.

Jesus is our spiritual ladder, our way to reach the holy, perfect God. In the beginning of Jesus’s ministry on earth, Jesus told Nathanael, “You will all see heaven open and the angels of God going up and down on the son of Man, the one who is the stairway between heaven and earth.” (John 1:51 NLT) Our sin has separated us from God, but Jesus, the son of God and the son of Man, came to pay the price for our sin, so we can be reunited with God.

Today is the perfect day to trust in Jesus, the only way to the Father.

Remember … Christmas is all about Jesus.