You’ve read this Christmas story before. Or heard it.
But some things bear repeating. Big things, like the Lord’s Prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance and “I love you.”
And the not-quite-so-big things, like “Please” and “Thank you.” Maybe the story of Claude Aldridge and his television set falls more into the George Bailey category.
You remember Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey in “It’s A Wonderful Life,” that movie we see at Christmas that reminds us ordinary people can be extraordinary.
Not that anybody would describe Claude Aldridge, who used to be resident manager of The Plaza, as ordinary, especially not when he’s telling his TV story and folks always feel better.
And last year Diane Ryan, receptionist and supply pastor coordinator for the N.C. Lutheran Synod, wrote to say she’d read the column about Claude for devotions and asked if it could be run again. Maybe even every year.
So here goes:
It happened on a Monday night. Claude and Geneva were meeting Helen and Walter Goodman for dinner. But the Goodmans weren’t there when the Aldridges arrived.
So Claude decided to go to Wal-Mart to get that TV they were planning to buy while she waited for their friends.
He was rolling it out to the car, he says, “when I sensed somebody was near me, so I turned around, and there were two young men in their 20s or 30s, clean-cut looking guys.”
They had stopped a van right next to the cart holding the television set.
“And they had lifted it off the cart,” Claude says, and were carrying it to their van.
“Captain,” one of them said, “we’ll relieve you of your television set. We’ve got room.”Claude didn’t hesitate.
“Swell, fellows,” he said, “that’s great. If you need it worse than I do, I’ll give it to you and help you load it, but I have to pray about it first.”
And he bowed his head and began to pray.
“Heavenly Father,” he said, “thank you for bringing these friends I’ve never met to help me load my television. I ask you to bless them materially with their needs, not their wants, bless them physically that they can work and make an honest living and bless them spiritually that they can feel your presence as I feel it now. Amen.”
And he opened his eyes.
“They had placed the television back on the cart. One of them was at the van, closing the doors, and the other said, ‘Mister, I’ll be glad to help you load your television.’
“So I opened the trunk. A tire was lying on the bottom, and he moved it, and we put the television in and closed the lid.
“And I stuck my hand out and said, ‘Friend, I really appreciate your help. God knew just who to send, didn’t he?’ ”
And the two young men agreed and got back in the van.
“I moved my cart,” Claude says, “got in my car, and we both drove out of the parking lot. I turned left, and they turned right.”
Back at the restaurant, telling Geneva and the Goodmans, he says, “my knees began to knock.”
He shared the story with his pastor, the Rev. Glenn Dickens, who preached Sunday on “Acknowledging the Presence of God.”
“I’ve never seen those two young men since,” he says, “and I probably never will. But I can’t claim any victory for either one. God just led me to them.”
Today's News
