| Truth and Beauty |
| Page: The Crocheted 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
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.
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 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 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. He was captured, sent to prison and she never saw him or
her home again.
The pastor wanted to
give her the tablecloth, but she told him to 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. He wondered how could there be two
tablecloths so much alike?
He told the pastor how
the Nazis came, how he made his wife flee for her safety and how he was supposed to follow her, but he was
arrested and imprisoned. 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 saw the greatest Christmas reunion he could ever imagine.
True story told by Pastor Rob Reid
Photo: Intellimon