Altar
Call – Opelika-Auburn News
Walter
Albritton
December
18, 2016
Christmas memories
help us remember and rejoice
I had a good time
in Auburn Tuesday night sharing a meal with some old friends and making some
new friends. My friend Earl Norton
invited me to speak at a Methodist dinner about my Christmas memories. Not
having a message on that subject, I invited my wife Dean for help.
She suggested I begin with our
engagement which occurred while I was a student at Auburn University. So, with
her incredible memory’s assistance, I went back in time. It was a journey down
memory lane that began in Montgomery, Alabama on Christmas Eve, 1951.
Dean and I had met in the first grade in
Wetumpka. She lived in town; I lived in the country. We became sweethearts
during our teen years and finished high school together in 1950. We continued
dating on weekends after I went off to Auburn and she began working in
Montgomery.
On
Christmas Eve in 1951 our deepening commitment to each other led us to Klein
& Son Jewelers in downtown Montgomery. Inside we asked to look at wedding
rings. Dean was quite shy back then so she insisted on pretending to be my
sister. As the jeweler showed us wedding rings, I would ask Dean, “Do you think
she would like this one?” All the while the jeweler kept showing us some very
expensive rings.
Finally, I admitted to the jeweler that I
had only $200 to spend. My total assets at the moment amounted to less than
$300. Surprisingly patient, the man pulled out a small solitaire diamond ring
priced at $200. Dean smiled and said my sweetheart would love it. So I bought
it and a twenty-dollar wedding band for myself.
Years later I discovered the story Jesus
told of the poor woman who put all the money she had in the offering plate and
Jesus said, “She has done what she could.” That night I did all I could; it was
the best I could do. The good news is that the shy young lady did accept the
ring and has now worn it for nearly 65 years! She has lost it twice but I found
it both times – once in the trash and once in the yard. Convinced me that God
wanted her to have this particular ring I decided not to replace it with a more
expensive diamond. The truth is, Dean has always insisted that the original
ring was all she wanted.
After buying the ring we celebrated with a
great dinner – hamburgers and shakes at a drive-in – and then went to my home
to show the ring to my parents. Dean remembers my Dad saying: “I hope you will
always be as happy as you are tonight.”
Later that night we ran into our friends
Annella Rowell and Johnnie Trobaugh at an ice cream parlor in Wetumpka. When
Dean showed them her ring, Annella said, “I got one too – tonight!” Like me,
Johnnie felt called to the ministry so we decided to go tell our pastor about
our engagements.
By now it was almost 11:00 o’clock but we
knocked on the parsonage door anyway. The pastor, Griffin Lloyd, came to the
door in his pajamas. When Dean and Annella showed him their rings, he said, without
much enthusiasm, “That’s nice.” He finally did invite us in. We asked where his
wife Kathleen was. He said, “In the bed,” but he woke her up so she too could
share our joy.
Many years later, after Griffin had died
too soon at age 45, Kathleen lived in Auburn and we lived in Opelika. Dean and
I reached out to Kathleen in her last days as she suffered terribly, physically
and emotionally. Her sadness was heartbreaking to us for it was Griffin who had
married us in Wetumpka on June 1, 1952.
Griffin and Kathleen are gone now but we
remember them and rejoice, giving thanks for their example, their love, and the
difference they made in our lives.
Christmas is a grand time to let our
memories prompt us to remember people who impacted our lives in helpful ways and
rejoice that their love added meaning and joy to our lives.
Remember and rejoice. Two words that
suggest a way to discover the deeper meaning of Christmas that can help us make
it through the stress of this holiday season. + + +