Читать книгу A Daughter's Book of Secrets - Robin K. Johnson - Страница 5

Is there a life experience more beautifully traumatic than a father watching his children grow up?

The transition typically happens over a long period. A newborn daughter may enjoy the tight swaddle of her father, but then over the years, celebrated milestones will begin a process of separation: first steps, first words (and thus first spoken opinions like “Mine!”) The child goes to kindergarten. A friend invites her for a sleepover. Eventually, she is riding her own bike to soccer practice, or playing the flute on stage by herself and dad is limited to the role of spectator. Puberty transforms the relationship with dad in both exciting and uncomfortable ways. At some time, love and dating enter the picture, bringing fathers to entire new levels of protective instincts.

And then suddenly, in cruel brevity, a father’s eighteen-year dance of nurturing independence culminates in this young girl becoming a woman and the mundane parts of that independence often bring lots of anxiety to poor dad. Many dads have held back tears while helping their daughter move into a new dorm, new apartment, new life.

Robin’s words represent all that fathers want to give to their daughters. He covers the practical advice from car maintenance to apartment safety precautions. He even ventures to areas of hygiene and “dropping kids off at the pool,” a conversation most often avoided by teenage daughters. But after this pragmatic advice, Robin focuses on a set of spiritual principals, based on biblical texts. He encourages his daughters to consider the wisdom of Scriptures and to let these texts guide and protect in ways that he can no longer do.

I remember Robin in my biblical studies classes, as he learned historical critical approaches to biblical texts and as he worked on exegetical assignments. He was interested in biblical interpretation and contexts, but I most remember how so much of his learning was tied to his own self-identity as a father.

I believe that this book is a reflex of Robin’s own experience as a theology student and father. As I read his words, I imagine him in his home, surrounded by pictures of his children, recalling both pride and regret as a father. I imagine that Robin’s writing of this book was therapeutic in that by giving these words to his daughters, he is still with them, wherever they go in this world. Yes, perhaps he wrote this for himself and for dads around the world.

It is a message written through a labor of love to be shared with others.

Dr. Roger S. Nam, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Biblical Studies

George Fox Evangelical Seminary