The Tablecloth ~ An Amazing Christmas Story
The brand new pastor and his wife, were newly assigned to their first
ministry. They were supposed to reopen a church in suburban Brooklyn.
They arrived in early October excited about their opportunities. When
they saw their church, it was very run down and needed much work. They
set a goal to have everything done in time to have their first service
on Christmas Eve.
They worked hard, repairing pews, plastering walls, painting, etc., and
on December 18 were ahead of schedule and just about finished. On
December 19 a terrible tempest - a driving rainstorm hit the area and
lasted for two days. On the 21st, the pastor went over to the church.
His heart sank when he saw that the roof had leaked, causing a large
area of plaster about 20 feet by 8 feet to fall off the front wall of
the sanctuary just behind the pulpit, beginning about head high.
The pastor cleaned up the mess on the floor, and not knowing what else
to do, postponed the Christmas Eve service and headed home. On the way
he noticed that a local business was having a flea market type sale for
charity so he stopped in. One of the items was a beautiful, handmade,
ivory colored, crocheted tablecloth with exquisite work, fine colors and
a Cross embroidered right in the centre. It was just the right size to
cover up the hole in the front wall. He bought it and headed back to the
church.
By this time it had started to snow. An older woman running from the
opposite direction was trying to catch the bus... She missed it. The
pastor invited her to wait in the warm church for the next bus 45
minutes later. She sat in a pew and paid no attention to the pastor
while he got a ladder, hangers, etc., to put up the tablecloth as a wall
tapestry. The pastor could hardly believe how beautiful it looked and
it covered up the entire problem area. Then he noticed the woman walking
down the centre aisle. Her face was like a sheet.. "Pastor," she asked,
"where did you get that tablecloth?" The pastor explained. Then the
woman asked him to check the lower right corner to see if the initials,
EBG were crocheted into it there. They were. These were the initials of
the woman, and she had made this tablecloth 35 years before, in Austria.
The woman could hardly believe it as the pastor told how he had just
gotten the Tablecloth. The woman explained that before the war she and
her husband were well-to-do people in Austria. When the Nazis came, she
was forced to leave. Her husband was going to follow her the next week.
He was captured, sent to prison and she never saw her husband or their
home again.
The pastor wanted to give her the tablecloth, but she made the pastor
keep it for the church. The pastor insisted on driving her home, that
was the least he could do.. She lived on the other side of Staten Island
and was only in Brooklyn for the day, doing a housecleaning job.
What a wonderful service they had on Christmas Eve. The church was
almost full. The music and the spirit were great. At the end of the
service, the pastor and his wife greeted everyone at the door and many
said that they would return. One older man, whom the pastor recognized
from the neighbourhood continued to sit in one of the pews and stare,
and the pastor wondered why he wasn't leaving. The man asked him where
he got the tablecloth on the front wall because it was identical to one
that his wife had made years ago when they lived in Austria before the
war and how could there be two tablecloths so much alike.
He told the pastor how the Nazis came, how he forced his wife to flee
for her safety and he was supposed to follow her, but he was arrested
and put in prison.. He never saw his wife or his home again in all these
35 years.
The pastor asked him if he would allow him to take him for a little
ride. They drove to Staten Island and to the same house where the pastor
had taken the woman three days earlier. He helped the man climb the
three flights of stairs to the woman's apartment, knocked on the door
and he saw the greatest Christmas reunion he could ever imagine.
Author Unknown
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