READ THIS!!
Little One
Just remember after reading this, never take for granted one who truly
loves you! You never know when will be the last time you see them.
Stac
"The Old Table Cloth"
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, 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. 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, in 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, New York, NY