Shared Idea: Older Fatherhood

With a little regret, I’m going to share a writing idea I’ve had. I’d really like to tackle it myself. I’m just nowhere close to imagining a time I could do so! So, if you’re interested in a rarer format, single-person narrative delving into older fatherhood and a son’s sacrifice, here you go.

I’m imagining something almost like a diary of letters that an older father is keeping, or periodically sending, for his son. I think the perspective should be like his son is away with the military, facing daily serious struggles and life-or-death sacrifice.

The kicker is that I want this older father to reveal a lot about fatherhood, watching loved ones suffer, and love.

You may think I’ve jumped the shark with this next remark, but I wonder if one couldn’t play around with it so much so as to have something of a parallel between the heavenly Father and the earth-sent Son. One would have to be so careful! At the same time, I think it would be a pretty phenomenal way to explore Scripture. One could tap the parables, of course, but also some of the other “as a son” passages. (Do you know what I mean?)

I fear I am not clearly presenting the idea. Letters could respond to things like a son leaving home, a father’s confidence in his son, his son’s hunger, his son’s “no place to lay his head,” the wilderness and evil men around, confidence in the mission, talk about a father’s love and a son’s honor, facing sacrifice head on, facing sacrifice for the sake of others, etc.

I wonder if it could be, in a sense, a reverse Pilgrim’s Progress. You know? The son is off on a journey, but in our case the Father’s Word continues to connect with him. Allegory only extraordinarily, perhaps painfully, down to earth!

Oh! Also like a reverse Screwtape Letters! 

Maybe it’s impossible. Maybe it would invite too much speculation, which is not my intention. In no way do I mean that more could, or should, be revealed about the Father or the Son. Rather, a book to voice for older fatherhood the vocation it ought to be—and is—as displayed by our heavenly, eternal Father.

At this rate, I’d happily exchange my ideas for the discipline to write my current projects. Sigh. Oh well. 🙂 Such is life sometimes!