The Blonde Mystery Solved

The anniversary of my father's 101st birthday will be June 15. The power of an old photograph prompted this blog post.

            Angie, my sister, was born when I was five years old. Other than her newborn photos, all of Angie’s photos reveal a little blonde. I recall Dad wondering where her blonde hair originated. 

Angie with her golden locks in an
early school portrait

            Dad and Mother had dark hair. Both grandfathers had dark hair. My maternal grandma’s hair was dark auburn in color. Dad commented often, ‘Pop said Mom had “dishwater blonde” hair.’ Of course, I only knew Grandma Gates with beautiful white hair.

            In relation to the "blonde question," I took my teasing too far when Angie and I were about ages four and nine. Even though I knew full well she was my biological sister, I cast doubt on that by saying, “But look at Mom and Dad’s hair color. You are the only one with light hair.” She was savvy, even as a preschooler, and “wrote off” my behavior to sisterly silliness and teasing.

            Until about a summer ago, the mystery of Angie's blonde hair remained unsolved. Brenda Gates, my cousin, delivered to me a couple of boxes of photos. I pulled a photo out and was perplexed. The photo showed Grandma Mamie Gates with two little ones. Grandma held the baby and a serious looking, little blonde boy stood next to her. I flipped the photo over to see scrawled in pencil, Mamie, Freddie and Edmund.

Mamie Tripp Gates, Freddie Gates, and
Edmund Gates, Jr., my father

        What a family revelation! Dad had never seen the photo. Otherwise, he would have declared, “I was a towheaded kid. That's where Angie got her blonde hair.”

            Now after decades, the mystery has been solved. Angie inherited the trait for blondeness from Dad even though as an adult his hair bordered on black in color until it turned silvery gray.

            As we approach the 101^st year marking Dad’s birth, there is an irony that the blonde mystery baffled Dad all his life. As that thought rolled around in my head, I thought of one mystery that Dad discovered in his late twenties and found it changed his life.

            The Apostle Paul discussed the mystery most important for humans to understand. These powerful verses to the Colossian believers addressed concerns about false teaching discounting the deity of Jesus wrapped in the human body born to Mary and placed in the manger in Bethlehem.

            In chapter 1, verses 26-27, Paul wrote, The mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to His saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

            Paul indicates for ages, generation after generation, most did not understand God’s mystery. But then over 2000 years ago, the mystery came to earth in the bodily form of Jesus Christ. Though He lived a perfect life on earth, He was condemned to a gruesome death. Only in God’s overarching plan did the mystery unfold of the sacrificial death of the Son of God which alone would give humans hope. The basic truth that cracked the mystery wide open was Jesus residing in those who received Him. His presence, the Holy Spirit, daily would reveal the hope of living today and the hope of eternal glory.

As I think about the life Dad lived before Angie and me, he allowed God to live through him to be a giving, generous husband, and provider for our family. Dad always pinpointed the year of his salvation as 1945. Grandma Gladys Smith wrote December 11, 1945, as the date Dad discovered and embraced the mystery of Jesus. A mystery almost too good to believe, but how greatly our family was impacted by Christ living in Dad, giving him the hope to live each day. It is our prayer that we move through life depending on the same power of Jesus living through us, bringing glory to God and honoring the legacy of a godly man, husband and father.