Fw: The Tablecloth

[Guest guest]

THE TABLECLOTH

The brand new pastor and his wife, newly assigned to their first ministry,

to reopen a church in suburban 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. and on Dec 18 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 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 but postpone the Christmas Eve

service, 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 center. 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 center

aisle. Her face was

like a sheet. " Pastor, " she asked, " where did you get that

tablecloth? " The pastor explained. The woman asked him to check the lower

right corner to see if the initials, BEG 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. She was captured, sent to prison and

never saw her husband or 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, that was the

least he could do. She lived on the other side of Staten Island and was

only in Brooklyn for the 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 and 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, 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 a prison. He never saw his wife or his home again 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 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.

True Story - submitted by Pastor Rob Reid

Who says God does not work in mysterious ways.