You can tell a tree by its fruit

ACORNS…are the fruit of an Oak tree. I have heard people saying they are from an Acorn tree. Go figure! They are falling all over our yard and up and down the street. As I was reflecting on the ones pictured here, it reminded me of an interesting truth. God created an acorn to grow on an Oak tree, and all other trees have their own fruit. Nuts, berries, flowers, you name it. The saying is: ‘you can tell a tree by its fruit’. The Live Oak in our front yard producing these acorns is twenty years old. How do I know that? We planted it when our grandson Will was born and he’ll be twenty this month.

The above saying is actually a short version of Matthew 7.16 NKJV. “You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?” We see all through Scripture that the Lord is a God of order. His truth is solid, reliable, unchanging. His very nature is unchanging. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13.7 ESV). Since Jesus said he is the way, truth, life; what he has created is established in truth. Acorns grow on Oak trees!

Gender Identity

As I have been so engaged for the last years of my life in the realm of fatherhood and family, I have recently observed, as have you probably, a world full of confusion about gender-identity among young people. It’s becoming a crisis among boys for certain. God did not make a mistake when he created you male or female. He has a purpose for each. Humanity is the highest order of God’s creation. He breathed ‘life’ into mankind, and declared that he made ‘man’ in Our image, the Triune God. (Gen. 1.26-28)  Look carefully at vs. 27 NKJV. “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

The Lord is not a God of confusion. He didn’t make a mistake with the Oak tree and its acorns, nor did he make one about man and woman. He said it was not good that man be alone, so he took the woman out of man, equal but with different gifts and traits. God has not altered his design for his creation. The purpose and privilege he gave male and female was to “Be fruitful (have babies) and multiply (lot’s of them), fill the earth (billions of them), subdue it and rule over it (caretakers of God’s earthly kingdom).”(vs. 28-my loose translation).

So, if I am Satan, I would do everything in my power to defeat this beautiful plan of God. One strategy would be to create doubt, deception and confusion about mankind’s sexual identity. “Did God really say…” was his first words to the woman in the Garden. Can you see the deceitful power in that statement? Today, he is still whispering the same message to humankind. “Did God really intend for you to be a man or woman?” Then our sinful nature starts doubting and the victory is well underway.

Be present

Dads, much of a child’s identity is developed in the first 5-6 years. This is a time when most fathers are hands off, leaving them to their mothers or grandmothers. A powerful vacuum or void in their development starts taking hold in their lives. You need to be very present, especially during these years. Your babies need to smell you, hear your male voice, feel your strength, sense your protection. Doing the things that moms don’t do, are not programmed to do. They are instilling the female attributes for which they were designed. But, they are not you, a man. And each child needs to experience both and embrace both. They develop wholeness! Do you see what I’m saying, and do you agree?

Remember, you are your daughter’s first love—don’t break her heart; and you are your son’s first hero—don’t disappoint him. Avoid abandoning them in the early years and only show up when he can go hunting with you; or when her first dates start showing up at the door. So much has taken place in their lives by then. Dads, you are a key link in your child’s gender-identity to embrace how God has made them to his glory. They’ll be ‘nuts’ over you! Just ask the acorn.