If it takes a village to raise a child, what does the Bible say about the role of an aunt?

My four-year-old niece, Lily, left today (with her parents) after staying with us for almost a month. They currently live in a different country, so I don’t get to see her, or her nine month old sister, Bella, that often.

Lily and I have a lot in common; coral pink is our favourite colour, and we both love clothes. Lily is particularly keen on dresses, and disapproving of ripped jeans, even telling me I should change (quite a few times) when I appeared wearing ripped at the knee denim one morning.

Having a four-year-old pal for the last month has been a total joy, and although I am not generally one for missing people, I well up now at the thought of not waking up tomorrow morning, and going into the garden with her to ‘inspect the plants’. Or picking her up from the temporary nursery she went to, and seeing her run towards me with arms in the air, crying ‘Aunt Jemimah!’ Or singing ‘Waymaker’ loudly in the car together. The line ‘miracle worker’ proved a little tricky for her, and come out more like ‘iracle irker’…but we were working on it.

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She wasn’t always perfect, she did call me ‘Daddy’ a few times by mistake. I am hoping that isn’t because I resemble my 6ft4 bearded brother, but simply because she connects me to him, knowing I am his sister.

There is something special about being an aunt.

There is something special about being an aunt. You don’t have the daunting task of disciplining and finding a routine that parents have, or the responsibility of future planning their lives, but you are connected in a way that is more than just another grown-up.

On the 29th January this year Princess Eugenie became an aunt again. Buckingham Palace announced the arrival of her older sister, Princess Beatrice and husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi’s second child, a girl named, Athena Elizabeth Rose.

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Eugenie is married to Jack Brooksbank, and they have two sons, August and Ernest, so I wonder if she is particularly excited about having a baby girl in the family again. I don’t know how close the royal sisters live to each other, but I do know they are in the same country, so have the freedom of seeing each other’s children easily.

When thinking of what advice I would give Eugenie, if she ever felt like asking me, on being an aunt, I think I would say, be involved.

As a child, there is nothing more wonderful than having an adult, other than your parents, really interested in your life.

As a child, there is nothing more wonderful than having an adult, other than your parents, really interested in your life. Someone to treat (aka spoil) you once in a while. I had a cousin who was like this to me. Her name was Joanna. She was about twenty years older than me, (my dad married later, her mum married young) and she made me feel special. She wrote to me at boarding school, sent me food parcels, and took me out for weekends at her parents home. She was wonderful. Sadly she died of cancer in her later thirties, so I can’t thank her now for the impact she had in my early life.

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What does the Bible say about being an aunt? Not much. We know that Rachel and Leah were aunts to each others children in Genesis 29 and 30, but the 12 children they had between them had the same father in Jacob, so that becomes a little problematic.

Was Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist like an aunt to Mary mother of Jesus? It appears that her husband Zechariah was a cousin of Mary’s but as their age difference was evidently quite large, perhaps their relationship was more like an aunt and uncle?

In some cultures, and communities, adult friends are called ‘aunty’ or ‘uncle’ as a term of respect, and a picture of a wider family that is bigger than just blood ties.

Being an aunt is a privilege, you have an opportunity to mentor, encourage, and support a child into adulthood. To be involved.

So even though Lily is now in another country, my aim is to continue to be connected, and to pray for her, that God would bless and protect her, and that one day, maybe she will get the blessing of being an aunt herself!