A
Christmas Miracle: 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. On 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 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 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.
Story
unconfirmed by truthorfiction.com
and has not been able to authenticate it. This appears to
be based on an article written by a man
named Howard C.Schade for
"Reader's Digest" in 1954. The original article
does not mention the exact number of years that had gone by
since the separation from the tablecloth had occurred, If the
original article is true, there could not have been a 35 year
interval since the original events are said to have taken place
under Nazi rule, which would have probably been in the 1940's.
The date of the article, 1954, was much less than 35 years later.
