Thanksgiving 2007

What a lovely Thanksgiving.

There was the giddy welcome around the suitcase popped open on the guest room floor that poured forth gifts from Aunt #1 and Tia Eli (who opted to stay home this time), for each of the three girls. This time, the gifts included the promise of a gingerbread house.

There was good fellowship and flavorful food passed around a pretty table.


There was the venture downtown that threatened to be all for naught, but was salvaged by a great gift find for the most difficult-to-buy-for man ever: my dad. I'm very excited to send him a guayabera to pamper the Latino in him.

There was the offer to babysit, a gingerbread house, and a Bible story for the girls.

And there were words of comfort and exhortation. My Aunt #1, who truly does everything she puts her hand to, for the sake of Christ, is proof that one does not have to personally experience every problem, circumstance or trama to minister Godly counsel to others. The Lord didn't ask Aunt #1 to raise children herself, but thereby made her available to teach, evangelize, counsel and help train up hundreds of children through her ministry over the course of 40 years. And today, she fills a void in our family: she steps in as a surrogate grandmother for the two who are too far away to see our children but every other year or less.

During her 2-night stay with us this holiday, she said something to me that meant a lot. Her words challenged me. Her words taught me.

She told me about her long-deceased mother, and how that woman whom everyone loved, won her children's hearts.

Won her childrens' hearts.

How does one do that, exactly? How can I win my childrens' hearts for the Lord?

XBox? Nintendo? Build-a-Bear Workshop? Soccer? Baseball? Swim team? Ipod? Cell phones?

What about memory-making activities like vacations? Game nights? Family dinners? Slumber parties?

How about other good things like Bible-reading, memorization and study? Prayer? Sunday school? Family worship? Church attendance?

Nope. None of those things are what Aunt #1 described as the way her mother won her heart. She explained that her mother won her heart by being on her side.

My Aunt remembers that her mother never opposed her in her struggle against sin, but always came along side her, lifted her up and fought it with her. It was she and Mom against sin. Mom was for her -- never against her.

So simple, really. And hopefully, I'm doing it...accidently...some of the time. But I don't think I really got it until she said it. My Aunt, who never raised a child of her own, taught me something very important this weekend about how to love my children.

But that wasn't all she did. She also brought to my attention a letter that she had passed on to me some years ago, but that I had apparently given only a cursory glance -- until now. It was a letter she wrote more than 30 years ago recounting her visit to my parents' home in Boston. In it, she describes a couple I don't know, but am so happy to meet!

They are young and warm and hospitable. They are engaged and energetic. My mother toured Aunt #1 around the historical sites of downtown and my father cooked burgers on the grill. My aunt must have been about 31 when she wrote this letter about her little brother, my father, and his girls. She mentions that I had started kindergarten that year and she makes a number of striking observations about my sister and me. It would seem that I was availing myself to the spiritual seeds she would sow even then; she writes of how I would awake very early and come to her room to talk. When I ask her now what we spoke of -- did she share Jesus with me? -- she remembers that she did. She says she answered all my questions.

I loved her then and I love her now. The Lord continues to use her as one of many instruments in my life through which He is restoring to me the years that the locusts have eaten.