Yesterday we made a Valentine’s delivery to one of the best. My Great Aunt Lola is my maternal grandfather’s sister. He died when I was a little girl and I only saw Lola occasionally through the years. We’re her only relatives in Midland these days, and we’ve all enjoyed reconnecting these last few years.
She’s become an important connection to my mother’s family and story for me... she has generously shared her traditions and her memories and her legacy with me, filling in gaps that would otherwise remain empty in this season of my life. She’s encouraged me and spoken truth and life and fierce-yet-tender love over me as she’s watched what’s happened in our family these last few years. She is joyful and kind and a model of Christ-like-grace in a season that’s undoubtedly lonely and sad for her at times.
I’m grateful for these years with Aunt Lola, for she helps me remember I’m not unmoored and disconnected, but instead bound to a long line of strong women who know who they are and Whose they are. And when I look at this picture I’m reminded family comes in lots of shapes and forms and ways, some of them surprising and unexpected... but the truth of this picture and of my life’s experience is that God still “sets the lonely in families.” (Psalm 68:6)
