Deacon's Diary

Deacon's Diary for Sunday-April,20th

deaconlwg | April 20, 2008 14:09

Deacon's Diary is a weekly feature that appears on the back side of the bulletin at the First Baptist Church of Avalon, Texas.

A family in reverse.

I'll never forget the time that my Uncle Dale came by our little house in a great big Greyhound bus. All of us kids were pretty young at the time. You can just imagine how much it thrilled all of us to see that giant thing coming down our old gravel road. We all stood and watched as it approached, wondering why in the world it was traveling in these parts. When it stopped right in front of our house we became even more interested. Then those air brakes hissed out a cloud of dust. The door slowly opened. And our surprise was finally made complete when down the steps and out came a man we all knew and loved.


I've got a lot of similar and fond memories of my Aunt Carolyn too. When we were just little kids, we all used to spend a good bit of our summers at her house. The fun lunches she fixed for us. The great games we played. Her generally laid back and happy nature made it a joy for us to be around her. Even now, after many years have past, Aunt Carolyn still has a special place in my heart. She has become a part of my permanent memory.


I have a lot of other kind memories of Dale and of all my other uncles. Those memories fit right nice along side the memories of Carolyn and all of my other aunts as well. Most people can probably relate to this. Aunts and uncles, for good reason, most always leave favorable marks in the hearts of their nieces and their nephews. On top of all that, they have become part of our history. Branches on the family tree.


We don't get to choose these aunts and uncles. We are born with some of them. Uncle Dale was my mother's brother. Others we acquire through marriage. Aunt Carolyn married my father's baby brother, Clyde. We don't have a say in the matter at all. In a way we just get stuck with them. By birth. Or for better or worse. They are who they are. Nothing we can do will ever change that fact.


Maybe I am just lucky, but the memories I have of my aunts and uncles for the most part are all good. They may have gotten the title of aunt or uncle by birth or by marriage, but it was by their actions that they earned my love and respect.


There is yet another way we can get an aunt or an uncle, however. The way that works kind of in reverse. Aunts and uncles whose family we were not actually born into. Those special people that first earn your love and respect, and then are given the nickname of aunt or uncle. One that comes to my mind is 'Uncle' Kenneth Wilson. He is such a special part of my church family that he is well deserving of his title 'Uncle'. This is a feeling that must be shared with most everyone at our church. All of us call him that. I just hope that he enjoys hearing it half as much as his fellow church members enjoy saying it.


There are countless other examples of this happening. The women in their neighborhoods who all the kids only know as 'Aunt so-in-so'. The men, like Mr. Wilson at my church, who are such solid members in their communities that they earn the love and respect of all those around them. The family friends that, over time, end up with that endearing nickname of aunt or uncle. These 'aunts and uncles in reverse' often end up meaning just as much, if not more,  to the people who know them than the aunts and uncles that they inherited at birth or acquired through different marriages. Through kindness and love they have found their way into the hearts of the people around them. They have carved out their little niches in the memories of others the old fashion way. They earned it.


 May God bless all of the 'reverse' aunts and uncles of the world. We could use a lot more of them today.

 

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