Honoring your father is to be respectful in word and action. To esteem their position within the family and God’s role for them, reveals the inward attitude of honor. The Greek word for honor means “to revere, prize, and value.”
How we honor our earthly fathers is a reflection of how we honor our Heavenly Father.
God invited Adam, the first father, to partner with Him in harnessing the potential of the earth.
But before He created Adam, He prepared the world and covered it with flora and fauna. According to Genesis, on the third day of creation, God created the grass, the herbs, and the trees that cover the earth. The following day God created lights, stars, and seasons—all to compliment the beauty of His creation.
He released animals to fill the world with life. Only then, when the world was full of His beautiful creation, did God create mankind and welcome us to His beautiful world. God took care to ensure that when we were brought into the world, that it would be full of beauty and abundant with life and resources.
In the same way, our earthly fathers have paved the way in many aspects of our lives, or given us the tools to learn how to for ourselves.
Are we being good managers of the gifts God has entrusted to us?
For thousands of years, mankind has depended on God’s trees, especially for food, shelter, and fuel. We were given an abundance of resources, but in consuming the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge, we became corrupted, learning waste and destruction.
For every tree God put on the earth, we have destroyed countless. We have hunted animals to extinction. We have taken His gifts for granted and abused our privilege to have dominion over all the earth.
But our Father in Heaven, who loves us very much, has forgiven us through Christ who sees the good in mankind. Originally, the forbidden fruit corrupted us to waste and destroy God’s gift, leaving grave consequences for the choice… but God graciously allows us to choose good over evil today. We can choose to honor Him with our stewardship of His resources.
His redemption was not just about forgiveness for our sins, but also in anticipation that we can show others His character. Our Father anticipated that in following the teachings of Christ, we would better understand how to serve Him, and also learn to appreciate all that He has given us.
Help Us Give the Ultimate Gift to Our Father this Father’s Day
All fathers want their children to learn from them, to follow in their footsteps and to reach their full potential. And nothing is a greater gift to a father than to show him that we have learned from him.
When our fathers teach us to fish, we gift him a fishing rod, or we catch a fish for him. If our father taught us woodworking, we might gift him tools, or make a beautiful carving.
Our Heavenly Father has taught us many lessons that began in the Garden of Eden, and now we intend to give Him more than just tools; we intend to give Him the garden.
Easier said than done perhaps, but we can’t underestimate ourselves! If everyone in your church comes together, if everyone in every church comes together, we can make a miracle happen for God just as He has made countless miracles for us.
This Father’s Day, we can give Our Father in Heaven the ultimate gift with a simple gesture. By sponsoring an olive tree with My Olive Tree, you are contributing a special gift to God from all His children in the Evangelical community.
The olive trees you sponsor will help restore the Negev Desert in the Holy Land of Israel, just as the Bible prophesied:
“For the Lord will comfort Zion, He will comfort all her waste places; He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord…”—Isaiah 51:3
It will take many trees to restore an area as large as the Negev Desert, but imagine how grateful God would be to see all His children working together to make one of His dreams come true. The more olive trees we plant, the more beautiful His garden will be. And the more we can contribute to this restoration, the more potential God will see in us.
What does it mean to God that You are Sponsoring an Olive Tree?
- You Accept His Teaching: Olive trees have been regarded since ancient times as symbols of peace, maturity, and wisdom. By planting an olive tree in honor of God, you are showing Him that you are at peace with Him, that you will not resist His teachings, and that you will continue to grow and learn.
- You are Dedicated to Maintaining the Earth: By restoring the desert, we are showing God our commitment to taking care of the planet that He created for us. Every tree we plant helps clean the air by lowering excessive levels of carbon dioxide released by cars and factories.
- You are Grateful for His Forgiveness: We accept that God’s gifts are nothing to be taken for granted, that we have sinned and been wasteful and abused our privilege… but now we are redeemed through Christ and given new opportunity to undo the damage done. This garden will show God that He was right to believe in us, and that we were worthy of the redemption and forgiveness He has blessed us with.
- You Give in Abundance: When God gave us the Earth, it came with an abundance of resources—more than we could ever need. He gave us so much as a gesture of unconditional love, and now we too are prepared to give back in abundance to reciprocate that unconditional love. If we can, we will sponsor not just one olive tree for God, but many on behalf of our friends and loved ones who may not be able to sponsor a tree themselves, but would be eager to show their appreciation for God.
- You are Shaping the Future: This project is special… not just symbolically. It will cultivate more than just a healthy garden, as the olive tree groves provide much-needed employment opportunities for the people of Israel. Restoring the Negev Desert will create more arable land for Israeli farmers and expand the growing oasis of this democratic society in the Middle East.
Sponsor an Olive Tree to Honor Your Heavenly Father and Your Earthy Father This Year!
God took care to make sure that the world He gave us was perfect; now it’s our turn to give back. We may not create something as perfect, but our appreciation will be recognized and rewarded. Our gift for God will show Him how far we’ve come in understanding our purpose in serving Him, and that our love for Him is as limitless as our potential.
This Father’s Day, let us make the desert bloom for Our Father in Heaven!
