"What is your sister's name?" This question came from a friend when I was 5 years old. I answered that "Her name is Sister and it had always been Sister." Everyone in our home called her Sister. Much later I later learned her given name and why we had always called her Sister.
My mother was divorced with a young child before she met my Daddy. Courting a divorced woman was not looked upon favorably by my Daddy's family or the Episcopal Church in the late 1940's and my parents were not allowed to be married in the Episcopal Church. During their challenging on-again, off-again, two-year relationship, my sister had respectfully called my mother's significant other by his last name, Mr. Merrill. She was still calling him by his last name after they had been married for a couple of years; but by the time they were expecting their first child together, my parents thought it would be confusing to the new baby for my sister to keep calling her adoptive father Mr. Merrill.
My Daddy found an opportunity to bring up the topic of names while shopping downtown at the Western Auto to buy my sister a new bicycle. There were only two places in small south Alabama town to buy bikes -- Western Auto or Sears. As they were shopping he struck up a conversation with her about what they were to call each other. They talked it out, and eventually came up with a plan: if she would call him "Daddy" then he would call her "Sister" since she was soon to be a big sister. Ever since then, she has been known in my family as Sister. My mother would later joke that she gave birth to my brother, and my sister got a brand new bike.
God sent his Son to the world to teach us God's name: Abba, Father. Through his loving adoption of us, we all became sisters and brothers, ready to offer him respect and love in return. I am reminded of this each time I hear "The peace of the Lord be always with you." Whatever social, mental, physical, or financial challenges are among us, our Abba, Father, has given us sisters and brothers who know the Spirit of his Son in our hearts, to be there for each other: for support, nurture and help through the difficult times, just as Sister was always there for me.
