Letters From A “Younger” Son

SAT., MAY 26, 2001, 2:00 PM
FARM, STUDY

Yes, o son of Mine, that oldest son of yours is here with you for some celebration of your completion of 75 years of earth life… this time. You realize, of course, that he is also here for the “reunion” of his high school graduating class, now 30 years ago. It just is nice that there was another, strong reason for his being here now.

Bob is a son of whom you are… and should be… proud. His high school record was not outstanding, but, after some time away from academia (to which these letters attest) he settled into an area of interest and earned a Ph.D. from Princeton. He now is in an endowed Chair at Charleston, certainly a relative success in the academic world.

In these letters from his European adventure just after high school he speaks often of Me, mostly as Jesus and God. He was a young, committed Christian, after pretty much rejecting the denomination of Christianity of his parents and home (as all of his brothers did, likewise). He was a young, excitedly committed Christian, and he wanted us to know that I was leading him, in this way different from yours.

You know, of course, that after some exciting times with these evangelicals and the experiences at L’Abri he found his “church home” in the High Episcopal or Anglican Church and has been a committed layman in that group of Mine for many years. It is interesting to you to read or to hear read these letters from 30 years ago and to see both the constancy of his relationship with Me AND the changes in his life and “style.”

Of your sons he is the one least accepting of your “path,” but in other ways he accepts you as a Christian ( 2:21 / 2:24 ) and one who had a reasonably good academic career. He now has sons in teenage, and we all shall see how these relationships “work out.” You are pleased and satisfied with your sons (the ones who survived to adulthood), and you hope he feels comparably as he goes through the coming years.

His experiences, as described in these letters, were quite different from yours, even as you both were “out on your own” at 17. He certainly wrote more than you did (at least to parents), and he continues to be the son who writes to you parents, regularly and at length.

Yes, the date at the top of each page tells that this is the anniversary of your birth, now 75 years ago… your “birthday.” You proclaim that, all in all, it has been a fine 75 years, and you’re still functioning, oh reasonably well. In somewhat of a contrast to your sons, you didn’t “rebel” against the Sunday School classes and youth group activities in your family’s Methodist Church. Your “church life” was different from the other “forms” of life that you lived, but differences didn’t seem “shattering.”

You had Navy experiences that your sons didn’t have, and, early on, these were in concert with college classes and university life. There were no great dangers, and you prepared for professional life as a teacher-coach. You had some success in coaching, but not enough to keep you in that unique form of teaching. You found the young woman who, finally, would be your loved life partner. You were married, finished your doctorate, had some more years at Punahou, then Stanford, and then settled here in Southern Illinois.

In contrast to sons Bob and Michael, you stayed in about the middle of the Christian spectrum, becoming Congregationalist in Hawaii, and then… and now… Presbyterian. Your spiritual “position” (abetted by your personality) makes it easier for you to accept your sons and their perceptions of Me than for them to accept you (and yours) comfortably. You often wish this “hadn’t been,” but you feel pleased that Bob is a strong Christian, even as he experiences Me somewhat differently than you do.