This is a story I wrote and read to my late Aunt Laura at her 80th birthday celebration in 2012:
Title: Happy Birthday – Aunt Laura! June 30, 2012
Author: Robert Porter
This is a little something I put together to let you know how special you have always been in my life, even though I’ve never said or showed it in my daily life. But my admiration for you go back to those days when you came to visit my grandfather’s – your father’s – house when I was a child. You were elegant, had such positive energy, spoke with a golden voice, and with your two beautiful young nieces – Lois and Jan called Gent and Lean – always with you, it was like having a piece of Hollywood come to the country. There are just some memories that never fade with time. So as a tribute to you on your birthday, I call this story…“Happy Birthday – Aunt Laura!”
I never knew who you were when you came to visit. I never had the courage to ask, as Nyla – age 4, my niece Nicole’s daughter, had the courage to ask my sister Pam “Who I was” when we were gathered at Pam’s place on Mother’s day. When Nyla asked, I had a flashback to the days when you came to visit, and realized she was only asking because she liked my vibes, as I liked your vibes when you came to visit.
So I offered Nyla a kiss in recognition that she liked me, and she readily accepted. But it’s sad, I was a grown man before it dawned on me who you were. That my granddad was your dad, and my dad was your brother. Maybe if I had had the courage to ask as Nyla did, it would not have taken me so long to understand.
I know you probably think the Porter clan from your brother’s seed is kind of crazy, but guess what? We know that. But also know that God chose your dad and brother for a purpose, a purpose I would not understand for many years.
I was praying in the Spirit one day, when the Spirit revealed that it had been predestined of the Father that the last born male grandchild born from the union of my grandfather, Mr. Porter, and grandmother Fannie, would be the chosen one. But I had no understanding of anything the Spirit was revealing? A couple of days after this revelation, I received a call from Mattie Ruth in San Francisco. Mattie had been my mother’s late brother – Robert Huff – first wife.
She called to thank me for a copy of my book: Elijah Has Come; The Making of a Servant by God. Which is a biography of my life with God beginning from around the age of eight; the born again experience and revelation of being called as His servant Elijah at the age of forty-three, and how the Spirit spent about five years following this revelation helping me to understand my calling. Until this call from Mattie, however, I had no idea why God called me out of all the people in the world.
When Mattie called, my first thought was: “It has been almost a year since I sent her a copy, maybe she’s just getting around to reading it.” Then my angel Elijah touched my soul and said, “Now’s your chance to find out how your mom and dad got the hook-up.” I had foolishly asked my mom about this once, and her response was, “Boy, I don’t know! Why you asking me something like that for?” I don’t know, ma. Boy, did I feel crunchy, like a straight-out fool.
But the words flew out of my mouth, “Do you know how my mom and dad got the hook-up?” Her response was just as quick, “Yea! I know!” stated in a way as if to say she did not approve. Then she sheepishly asked, “Well, you do know they were stepsister and brother, don’t you?” I said in response, “O yea. I know that. I was just curious as to how they got close.”
Mattie shared how that when she and uncle Bobby would visit my grandparents, when they stayed overnight, they shared the bedroom with my mom and dad. I was brought up in that old raggedy house in the 50s and 60s, hated everything about it, and I remember that it only had one bedroom, with only two beds. And my grandparents probably made a place to sleep in a little storage room that was right by the kitchen, whenever they had company that stayed overnight. But Mattie said that she made the comment to uncle Bobby how that “she did not think it was right for a stepsister and stepbrother to sleep in the same bed.” Uncle Bobby told her “to let it be and not say anything.” I was beginning to suspect that God had created a temptation too great for my mom and dad-to-be to overcome. But why?
The next day, while I was praying in the Spirit, this is when the Spirit explained how that my calling had been predestined of the Father. The Spirit revealed that your dad had been chosen not only because he had the name “Porter” that His Son in the living God had in the day when He opened the door for Jesus to Shepherd His sheep, two thousand years ago, the day when He laid down His life in heaven with the Father, picked it up here in the land of the living to walk as One with His Father’s only begotten Son to be born of a woman – sweet Jesus, but he also had a handsome teenage son in your brother.
God the Father saw a widowed woman in my grandmother Fannie who had a beautiful teenage daughter He could allow the living God to use to become my mother. God knew that if He brought my grandparents together as one in marriage, that this would also bring my mom-to-be and dad-to-be together as stepsiblings under the same roof. All to create a seed-wise situation in the natural similar to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. With Jacob being the last born male grandchild of Abraham, as I was the last born male grandchild of your dad. God works in mysterious ways.
So what many saw as a shameful act for a stepsister and stepbrother to come together as one in marriage, was really an act of God. Your dad had no need to know this, for he was chosen of God for this purpose only, much as Isaac was chosen to bear the seed of Jacob, and had no need to know the things God was revealing to his father Abraham. Your brother was chosen to bear my seed, because he was the seed of my grandfather, your father, Mr. Porter. But I’m sure God was hoping that I would understand from this that principles are the same when it comes to the natural and spiritual realm, and hopefully understand my calling at the appointed time.
In respect to principles, in the spiritual realm, when it comes to God the Father, the living God and Jesus, your dad would have been as if God the Father, your brother as if the living God, and uncle Wylie, your half-brother born from the union of my grandparents, would have been as if Jesus. For just as Jesus and the living God had the same Father as Their Creator, our Heavenly Father, uncle Wylie and my dad had the same father as their creator, your father.
And of course, when it comes to principles in the natural realm, compared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, your dad would have been as if Abraham, your brother as if Isaac, and I would have been as if Jacob. Even though Jacob was a twin, he was the last male to come out of the womb, as I was the last male grandchild of your dad to come out of the womb.
As the chosen one, I have been called of the Father to prepare the way before God, just as John the Baptist was called of the Father to prepare the way before Him two-thousand-years ago, when our Lord suddenly came to His holy Temple in the flesh and blood body of Jesus. But I have been chosen of the Lord in this day for His return back to the earth for the last day of the latter days, the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
But that’s enough of that stuff. For we’re here today to celebrate your birthday. I put my heart and soul into this story in an all out effort to make up for all the years I failed to spend adequate time with my most admired aunt. And while that old flesh of yours may be as if a leaning tree at the age of eighty, aunt Laura, our beloved Tracy Porter (my nephew who recently died unexpectedly at the age of forty-six) showed us: The leaning tree is not always the first to fall. And when that tree does fall, I know that you believe as I believe; there’s a better place awaiting our souls in the by-and-by. And every day will be like Sunday when we get there. No more hunger. No more thirst. No more pain. No more dying, sickness or sorrow. Just eternal Life in the presence of God and our Savior – the Lord Jesus Christ. What person would not die to get there? But we’re a selfish bunch, aunt Laura. We’re not dying for you to get there. For we love being in your presence. That’s why we’re gathered here today to celebrate your birthday… “Happy Birthday – Aunt Laura!”
“Goodbye Mom” – A Tribute To My Late Mom, The Lady Who Received The Seed From My Grandfather’s Seed In My Dad.
Elijah Has Come 