My Sixteen Year Old Son Writes a Letter Back through Time
In cramped angular letters on blue lined notebook paper, my son wrote a letter to a young single mom.
This woman received nothing but judgment and scorn from the people in her town. Alone for three years in a new frontiers town with no word from her husband, she feared he was dead. Finding friendship in a gentle man, they fell into temptation and into an affair. Found out to be with child, the town erupted against her.
Are you familiar with this story? Set in New England in the 1700s, Nathaniel Hawthorn, author of The Scarlet Letter, paints a sad stern picture of Puritan values. Different from the humbly beautiful Puritan works that I have seen, Hawthorn must have seen only strict legalism and a fear of revealing personal shortcomings. His Puritan leaders hide their own sin, shame others, and seem to know nothing of redemption and forgiveness.
Hester Prynne, the single mother, and her daughter lived on the outskirts of town. Hester was forever forced to wear a large embroidered A for adultery, and her daughter grew up chased and shunned by neighbor children, morphing into a fearfully broken and bitter child.
This American Literature book that my son and I are reading aloud together for school is so sad. We break from reading and burst out into discussions of what should be happening instead of what is happening in the story.
“John,” I finally said this week. “Write Hester Prynne a letter. That’s your assignment for today. Tell her all the things God would be telling her… about how people are treating her here, about how God sees us, and about the hope she can have.”
Grumbling a little bit about his homschooling mom’s odd assignments, he nevertheless grabbed a notebook and headed downstairs to the quiet of his room. Later he emerged with this letter (and gave me permission to use it).
Hi Hester,
John
Wow! What fun to see my son understanding glimpses into God’s huge redemptive character. He’s right too that we all wrestle with sin.
Sometimes we Christians still fall into a trap of thinking that we need to look as if our acts are all together and that we have no sin. The truth is we all have sin and junk in our lives that God is working on in us. Our scarlet letters may vary per day. Today my letters were C for critical spirit, U for ungrateful, I for impatient, and Q for quarrelsome.
Thankfully when I bring these letters to God and ask my Abba Daddy for forgiveness, he gives it lavishly. Then, he strips off my letters and throws them away.
Extravagant love. Lavish grace. Wild second and third and fourth chances… Dear Hester Prynne…
What about you? I’m so glad you are here right now. What are you thinking about today? What letters did God strip off you today?
I'm proud of you, John!
-Mom
(Jennifer Dougan)
jenniferdougan.com
Wonderful job, John!
nice…so cool to see his insights into such a hard sotry at times…wonderful jump off point for some great discussions though…
That is a beautiful, precious letter!
Beautiful…
Thought provoking assignment– and wonderful letter.
Hi Jennifer – great post. I love how you tie this in to us as people being judgmental, critical, etc. That is so true. Your son has a great writing talent. Thank you too, for linking up with me for winsome wednesday. I hope to see you there next week too.
God bless
Tracy
Thanks for asking about my book. It is the story of two women. A young woman (Aliisa) immigrates from Finland to Michigan around 1900. As she deals with unexpected hardship she turns to the Lord for help. Her great grand-daughter has very different life circumstances. She is a contemporary labor and delivery nurse that is dealing with all the changes that have taken place in women's health care. In writing this story I have wrestled with faith and health issues that women encounter.
Book reviews are posted on Amazon and also the website, omsoul.com
Jennifer, the direct link to the review at One More Soul is: onemoresoul.com/featured/aliisa's-letter.html
Thanks for your interest.
Carol
John expresses some awesome truths in his letter — good job, John! And Jennifer, I'm sure you and your husband have been faithfully instilling these awesome truths in to John's life. Good job to you, too!
i am so moved by this letter, jennifer. by your son's heart. i feel as though i understand God better, now, having read this letter. bless you both. xo
Oh wow – I so love the letter from your son. What a great testimony to the transforming power of God's grace and the Mommy who is pouring into the author!
Great assignment, Mom! What a sweet boy.
Hi Jennifer,
Thanks for your comment on my blog. My experience with Wine Press Publishing has been a learning experience. The publishing industry is going through great changes. Having been to a number of writing conferences I understood some of the challenges. Other aspects were new.
If you have more questions you can e-mail me– look at the sidebar of my blog.