The Parable of the Gifts of the Loving Father by Mrs. Juanita Pinzur There were two fathers; one was a loving father, and the other was an evil, unloving father. They both had many children whom they trained to be like themselves. The loving father desired, also, to welcome the children of the unloving father into his family and to share his love with them. The unloving father did not easily part with his children, however, for he wanted to use them to attain his own evil purposes. One of the ways which the loving father showed his love to his children was to give them many gifts. There was among these many gifts a special gift which he would bestow. To some of his children he gave only one such special gift while to others he gave more. His children gladly welcomed as many of these special gifts as their father would be pleased to give them, for this special gift was highly valued by his children. Sometimes the loving father withheld the special gift completely from one of his children. When this happened, that child sought diligently that his loving father might bestow one upon him. The loving father was so generous that he even gave some of his special gifts to the children of the unloving father. Now, while these special gifts were highly valued, they also required a great deal of care. Even that was part of the loving father’s purpose, though, in giving his children these special gifts, for the children always found that their loving father willingly provided all that was needed for the care of their special gifts. All they needed to do was ask him. This would in turn deepen the relationship of love and trust between the loving father and his children as they looked to him for help. These special gifts also had a way of attracting the children of the unloving father to the loving father. These unloved children saw the way the loving father cared for his children and how much the special gifts meant to them. Even the special gifts themselves drew the unloved children to want to know the loving father’s care. This, too, was part of the loving father’s plan for winning the children of the evil father into his home. Now when the evil, unloving father saw his children were being drawn from him, he came up with a plan to destroy the loving father’s family. In this way he hoped to no longer lose his children to the loving father. He began to teach his children that their special gifts were so difficult to care for that they should be careful not to accept too many. He then provided them with caretakers to help them with the enormous task of caring for these special gifts. There caretakers made special studies and convinced the evil father’s children that only the caretakers really knew how it was best to care for the gifts. The children of the loving father also began to listen to the teachings of the caretakers rather than their father. They began to forget their father promised to provide for the care of their special gifts. They desired to win the children of the unloving father into their family. The great amount of care which the special gifts required seemed to detract from this task, so they, too, began to only accept a few special gifts. These special gifts they sought to care for, but finding the task difficult, they began to seek the help of the caretakers. Allowing the caretakers to care for their special gifts gave them more time to work for their loving father. How grieved the loving father was when his children no longer wanted to accept all the special gifts he wanted to give them. How could they have forgotten his abundant help always there for the care these special gifts required? Why had they begun to listen to the teachings of the unloving father instead of trusting him? They wanted to bring the unloved children into the loving father’s home, but they had stopped accepting one of the evidences of their own father’s love! As time passed the children of the unloving father began to observe that the children of the loving father no longer valued their loving father’s special gifts. These unloved children concluded that special gifts must not be very desirable, so they began to destroy the special gifts they received. This action brought a great outcry from the children of the loving father, for, they said, no one had the right to destroy a special gift, only to refuse it. Their objections went unheeded, however, for their very lives gave witness to the unimportance of these special gifts. Children of God, where are the special gifts our loving father has desired to give us? Who determines the size of our quivers? “Lo, children are an heritage (special gift) of the Lord; and the fruit of the womb is his reward. “As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.” - Psalm 127:3-5 YWSH Main Page