Saturday, December 19, 2009

As I sit and think of my long past childhood, I remember being surrounded by women most of the time. Now this is not a bad thing at all, but it puzzled me at the time why we had 5 aunts and only one uncle (whom we seldom saw). The imbalance just didn’t make sense to an eight year old.

My Dad had three sisters who lived down in Virginia, so we didn’t see them too often. Mom, however, had two sisters (Lil and Marge) who lived close by. Lil was a nurse and seemed to work all the time. Marge was always available for babysitting and visiting, as her children were grown and gone. So, of course she became the favorite, or “Super Aunt.”

Aunt Marge was a chubby and happy person who always laughed and had time on her hands. She had no problem showing lots of love to her niece and nephews. She always seemed to have candy and cookies. She would take me (siblings were too young) to the beach and sometimes places Mom did not approve of. My mother did not approve of movies in those days… “Devil’s playhouse.”

My favorite time with Marge was always Christmas. She was skilled at always getting the perfect present, just what a kid would want. Very often it was considered the best present we got that year. It never mattered how late it was on Christmas night; no one was going to bed until Aunt Marge arrived. Great anxiety filled the house; Christmas was incomplete without her.

Marge passed away in 1958 and is sorely missed by all of us. My mother spoke of her big sister often and lamented how sorry she was that Marge had such terrible luck and had lived in poverty most of her life. How could this be when she was so kind and generous?

Years later, after Mom passed away, I talked with Dad about this and mentioned that I never knew about Marge’s financial state and recalled all of the wonderful things she had done for me, my brother, and sister. Only then did he tell me that he had secretly provided the money necessary for her to do the things she did.

It was then that I realized how Marge always had the perfect present for Christmas and birthdays. My father had shown his love for her and for us by this act of his grace.

Our Heavenly Father also showed His love and grace through someone else – His only Son. God continues to bless us through others, our families, our Christian friends, our Pastors and leaders, but most of all as Christ lives in our hearts. We must remember that God wants to show His love to our fellow man. He wants to work through us to accomplish that. And you know that He gave us the Perfect Gift to talk about this Christmas!

~Howard Clemons