Abraham, Isaac, and the lamb

I have a gay friend who was raised in a strict Southern Baptist family, and consequently had the hardest time coming to grips with his sexuality once he reached adulthood.  It is a common enough sad story, more so for me, because I know him, and am well aware of what repression, the perversion of lying to himself and others, cost him.  The years of his adulthood were first marred by the violently negative reaction of his parents when he told them the truth, and, as time goes by, he has has been blighted by his widowed mother's continuing disapproval, condemnation, really, of a fellow who I can testify from years of acquaintance is the kindest, most gentle, most generous person imaginable. I am not a religious person but I know the stories of the bible.  I think of Abraham and Isaac, how the Lord told Abraham to make of Isaac a human sacrifice.  Two things about this story always fascinate me, one is that the narrator stresses at some length the reaction of Isaac to the circumstance that as he and his father proceed to the location where the sacrifice is to take place the youngster keeps asking his father where the sacrificial lamb is, what is going to happen.  And the father lies to the boy insisting that there will be a lamb at the appointed time.  And, of course, Isaac is readied for sacrifice, and indeed the Lord does substitute the sacrificial animal.  Ever since I was a boy I have been repelled by this story, imagining what must have been the aftermath, how Isaac could never ever have trusted his father again, thinking of how he led him on.  Sure, strong faith and all that, but what must the boy have been thinking in those last few moments?  Happy ending?  Yes, but what was the psychological scar?  The other side of this is of course the substitution of the lamb, and I always read this as a prophecy of what was to come.  Abraham, the stern old Hebrew father, versed in fire and brimstone, of a piece with the harsh god of the Old Testament, whereas the lamb which the Lord found as a substitute for the boy, seems to augur for the coming revelation of divine love brought into the world by the Prince of Peace.  And in that spirit I tell my friend to explain to his mother that she must dismiss Abraham from her thinking and accept the lamb of love into her heart and embrace her son.  Open her heart and let herself be saved.  Even Pope Francis would recommend it, but perhaps telling that to a southern Baptist does not have the hortatory power I imagine.