In my first novel I found my self doing an interesting double layered thing with my themes and plot. I didn't go deeply into my characters' relationship with God, but what little I had was strongly mirrored in their relationships to others.

My main character is in rebellion against God, her family, and other authorities, telling herself that the rules she grew up with don't matter and she is doing a good thing. Then later she realizes fully what she's done and wonders if she can be forgiven, by God and by anyone else. Then when she starts to turn back to God that gives her just enough courage to face her family. Then other people forgiving her helps her believe that God really would forgive her.

I have a very similar thing with another character. Have any of you noticed anything of that kind in your writing?

Considering that this is exactly how it works "in real life," this is an excellent way to write relationships in your story. We rarely realize it, but our relationship with God directly affects our relationships with the world and others. The reverse is also true--someone's approach to faith usually says a lot about their past experiences, worldview, etc. Examining one can usually give you diagnosis for the other.

Putting more focus on the earthly relationships can also help make your story more marketable and readable in some cases. Portraying religious concepts in direct, overt language can be difficult. Coming at it indirectly through other relationships in the story can make it easier to swallow for some readers. The movie Zootopia did this with the theme of racism. Instead of having a movie with classic black and white people hitting on the themes of racism--which would have been difficult to pull off--it used animals and their made-up social classes to indirectly talk about racism and sexism. It would have been very, very hard to get past people's "knee-jerk reactions" and prejudices if they'd made a movie with people. But since nobody has racist prejudices against rabbits and foxes, Disney was able to very easily portray racist stereotypes in a way that the audience would swallow (and even enjoy).

All of that to say--keep up the good work.

I was just listening to some people discuss Zootopia about the time you mentioned it.

I'm just hoping that my own parallels don't come off as heavy handed. I think it will be okay, because I've not done it everywhere and I hope I focus on other parts of the story enough. It's only a first draft though, so I'll have plenty of time to refine it.

Between beta readers and plenty more drafts to come, I'm sure you'll be fine. One thought though, try not to come across as preachy and try to write it in a way that readers can relate to, I personally think it comes across much better. But of course this is a matter of opinion.

I think we all implement "parallels" or little messages into our stories whether we like it or not.

That's exactly what I'm trying to avoid.

Not sure if it applies but this discussion reminds me of an article I read the other day about impact characters. How they are usually positive (or negative) examples of the Truth your main character is learning. Frankly, I think having the negative-impact character grow along with the main character is a very Christian desire. It's always sad (though realistic) when the main character grows but has to walk away from someone still stuck in the lie/sin/rebellion. Those moments can be powerful but having a hope-infused ending can have an impact, too.