A Letter to My Son.

A Letter to My Son.

This letter, firstly, intends to capture a moment in the timeline of my unconditional love for you so that you may reference this in a season when you need to hear my voice on a page. Secondly, I pray these words inspire other fathers to love their children well despite their insecurities. You are your child’s superhero.

To everyone else reading this. This is what a father loving his child looks like.

Daddy loves you, son, with a peculiar love. I love you with the kind of love that is different from any love I have for anything or anyone else. You are my son. That is the only prerequisite for the love that I have for you. I’m here for you, son, no matter what. As you bloom, I want you to study my life and learn from me. My prayer is for you to be all that God intends for you to be.

A few months ago, your mother told me that you said, “Daddy keeps me safe.” She said that your face lit up as you spoke of me. I pray that I love you so fiercely that you still think of me that way when you’re 26 years old, the length I’ve bloomed to thus far. I want you to be able to think of me this way, even through the mistakes you see me make.

I long for you to be watered by the truth that I believe about myself, those beautiful things God thinks of me. I need you to witness what it looks like for a man to walk in the purpose God calls him to and believe who God says he is. You must know what it is to never give up on love and what it means to keep loving people, though the vehicle that holds that love might change.

My son, love is a force unseen and yet cannot be deleted, for it is the core element of the very world you live in. Where it exists, peace prevails; where it does not, chaos runs rampant. It is the sole reason this world still exists.

It is the reason the sun has not moved an inch closer to the earth since its creation. It is the reason why you are able to inhale and exhale. It is why the winds and the waves obey the King of the universe. That is why you must study the trees and see how they praise God with no end. It is the reason that I must teach you why the trees worship God even when there is no wind to move them to the beat of praise to the Master Artist. The trees praise God even in growing up, son. Even when they are cut down, they serve a purpose. They honor their creator by fulfilling that purpose, as you should.

My son, it is my mission to teach you why the environment groans for its savior.

Marlon Deshawn Bryant Jr, I’ll leave you with this thought: When you reach the end of your life, I want you to have given life everything you have. My son, go to your grave relieved of the burden of the gifts in you that cries to be cultivated. Be strong and courageous. Hope in God until the very end.

With eternal love,

Your father.