Unmerited Love

During the last few days of my trip to Malaysia, my Auntie wanted to take me on an outing. She had a plan all lined up: Dad would drop me off at her house, we'd walk to my favorite restaurant for breakfast, and then we'd ride the bus to Little India to do some shopping.

I first  met Auntie when I was 13 and she was my neighbor. In the last nine years, she's become a part of my family, and I've become a part of hers. Today, I don't want to tell you about her life, the hardships she's lived through, or her habits and traditions, I just want to talk about her love.

 The same day of this outing, Auntie's daughter decided I needed yet another pretty dress, and gave me this sari.

Auntie has several children of her own, as well as two small grandchildren, but that hasn't stopped her from deciding long ago that all 7 of us kids were also her children. She hasn't met most of our relatives in America, but she can recognize nearly all of them in pictures, and she asks about our grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins by name. Auntie has always cared for my siblings and I just as if we really were her children, and her love is one I can barely understand or explain.

Auntie is not well-off. I know that when she takes me out, she's going to want to buy me presents. I got a little nervous on our outing, and I told her not to spend too much money on me. She did not listen. Once we got off the bus, she took me straight to a grocery store where she bought me 10 packages of Indian sauces and 4 packages of papadam. When I said I didn't need so many, she said, "That's okay, give whatever you don't need to Isaac."

Then she took me to the dress shop. I knew that there wasn't any way she'd let me out of the shop without buying me an outfit, so when she told me to pick out a salwar kameez pattern to have custom tailored for me while we ate lunch, I complied. Together, we picked out the pattern that I thought was prettiest, and I stood awkwardly getting my measurements taken by the tailor while she chatted with him and insisted that he remember all the details we wanted for the tunic.

When we walked out of the clothes store, she handed me a bag with a purple and blue silk sari in it. I don't even know when we were apart long enough for her to choose and buy a sari, but my Auntie was smart enough to know that I would offer excuses if she asked me first about buying the sari, so she bought it without my permission.

We had 90 minutes to kill while my outfit was being sewn, so we headed to the jewelry store where she bought me bindis and henna. I said I didn't want any earrings, so she bought ten pairs of earrings for me to give to my aunts and cousins in the U.S. We went to a restaurant for drinks, and I told her there was no need to spoil me so. I told her that I didn't want her to spend so much money on me. She said, "Rachel, why should I work if not to be able to buy good things for my children?"

In my lifetime, I've been spoiled rotten by people in my family and among my friends who consistently treat me with love and generosity. When I think of my Auntie, I sometimes try to wonder what I've done to deserve the care that she shows for me and my family--and my only conclusion is that I've done nothing. I simply don't deserve to be loved the way she loves me. It's a love beyond reason, a generosity outside the bounds of common sense.

Jesus once spoke highly of a woman who dropped two small copper coins, all she had, into the temple treasury. She wasn't generous out of the excess of her possessions, she was generous when she had no excess. For the last nine years of my life, I've had the privilege to be called her daughter.

 Auntie doesn't like to get her picture taken, but I found this one of her with her granddaughter, my honorary niece.

Has someone in your life shown you a love and generosity that humbled you?