Most importantly though, she taught me what it meant to walk with the Lord.
I don't think that anyone could ever say that being blind is an advantage, but Aunt Bonnie used it to her advantage. She told me her secret once when I asked her about how she managed to walk around so well when she couldn't see. She said that she prayed before every step and just trusted God with the rest. In fact I have heard a lot of people say in the last week that they didn't even know that she was blind when they first met her. I guess that shouldn't have surprised me since she was always cooking lunches and dinners for the masses of family and friends that just couldn't stay away from her hospitality. I'm still not sure how she pulled that off, but I'm sure that there was also prayer involved when she reached for a hot pan in the oven. Now don't get me wrong here, because we all need Jesus for every breath and everything in between, but I believe her real advantage was that she needed Jesus to be her eyes. I think that she took full advantage of His offer to help her see, and then when she didn't need Him for that in any given moment, she would just be still and keep talking to Him.
I can't even tell you the countless times that Aunt Bonnie pointed me back to Jesus. She was a spiritual giant in my life, but she was also honest and real. I asked her once how she managed to get up so early every morning to spend time with the Lord. She told me that the first few weeks she fell asleep while she was praying, which I just couldn't believe! But she kept showing up; and God showed up and was patient with her. She taught me that it doesn't have to be perfect, I just need to keep coming back and seeking the Lord. Even when I was away at college she wrote me regularly, and for a while she called me every week to pray over the phone. She was always ready to answer you with the Word of God that she meditated on continually. She was always consistently there for me as if I was her own son. My mother, her sister, is surely thanking her now in Heaven for the love and care that she gave to me and my sister. When I got married she embraced my wife and loved her like a daughter. When I had children, she had more grandchildren, and she cherished them. I feel the hole that she has left, but I guess even more I am overwhelmed by the legacy of trusting Jesus that was her example.