THE TABLECLOTH

Ain’t No Mountain High Enough
To Keep Me From Getting To YOU!

divider

THE TABLECLOTH

The brand new pastor and his wife, assigned to their first ministry to reopen a church in urban Brooklyn, 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. By Dec. 18 they were ahead of schedule and just about finished. On Dec 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 the roof had leaked. It caused a large area of plaster, about 6 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. Not knowing what else to do, but postpone the Christmas Eve service, he 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, hand-made, ivory colored, crocheted table cloth with exquisite work; fine colors and a cross embroidered right in the center. It was just the right size to cover 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. While the pastor got a ladder, hangers, etc. to put up the tablecloth as a wall tapestry, she sat in a pew and paid no attention. The pastor could hardly believe how beautiful it looked and how it covered up the entire problem area. Then he noticed the woman walking down the center aisle. Her face was like a sheet.

“Pastor,” she asked, “where did you get that tablecloth?”

The pastor explained.

The woman could hardly believe it as the pastor told how he had just gotten the tablecloth.

The woman asked him to check the lower right corner to see if the initials EBG were crocheted there. They were. These were the initials of the woman. She had made this tablecloth 35 years before, in Austria. 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 following week. She was captured, sent to prison, and never saw her husband nor her 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. He felt that was the least he could do. She lived on the other side of Staten Island and was only in Brooklyn that day, for 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. Many said that they would return.

One older man, whom the pastor recognized from the neighborhood, continued to sit in one of the pews and stare. The pastor wondered why he wasn’t leaving.

The man asked him where he got the tablecloth on the front wall. It was identical to the one 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 a concentration camp. He never saw his wife nor his home again for all the 35 years in between.

The pastor asked him if he would allow him to take him for a little ride. They drove to Staten Island; 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 saw the greatest Christmas reunion he could ever imagine.

True Story — submitted by Pastor Rob Reid

divider

animated heart
I send you love.

home

{ SITE MAP }

credit logo

divider

Scroll to Top