The Old Tablecloth

The Old Tablecloth
(Playing ~ "Coming to America")

The brand new pastor and his wife, newly assigned to their first ministry, were excited
about their opportunities. When they saw their church, it was very run down
and needed a great deal of 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, and so forth, 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. He 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 and fixtures
to put up the tablecloth as a wall tapestry. He could hardly believe how beautiful
it looked and how it covered 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, EBG, were crocheted into it there. They were. These were the initials
of the woman, and she had made this tablecloth 35 years earlier, 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 him 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 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. He said it was identical
to one that his wife had made years ago when they lived in Austria before the war.
He wondered how there could 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 how he was supposed to follow her but was arrested and
put in prison. He never saw his wife or his home again in all the 35 years since.

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 then saw the greatest Christmas reunion he
could ever imagine !

~ said to be a true story,
submitted by Pastor Rob Reid, New York, NY

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