A brand new pastor and his wife were assigned to their first ministry…they were to reopen a church in urban Brooklyn. They arrived in early October very excited about their opportunities.
When they saw the church, it was very run down and needed a lot of work. They set a goal to have everything done in time to hold their first service on Christmas Eve.
They worked hard repairing pews, plastering walls, painting, etc., and, on December 18th they were ahead of schedule and just about finished. Then, on December 19 there was a terrible superstorm—a driving rainstorm pounded the area for two days.
When the paster went over to the church a few days later, his heart sunk when he saw that the roof had leaked. That caused a large area of plaster, about six feet by eight 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. It seemed like there was nothing to do but to postpone the Christmas Eve service. Disheartened, he 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 for sale was a beautiful, hand-made, ivory colored, crocheted table cloth with exquisite work; it had fine colors and a cross embroidered right in the center. It was just the right size to cover up the damage to the front wall of the sanctuary. He bought it and then headed back to the church.
By this time it had started to snow. An older woman hurrying from the opposite direction was trying to catch a bus; she missed it. The next bus would not depart until 45 minutes later, so the pastor invited her to wait in the warm church. She sat down 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. When he finished hanging the cloth, the pastor could hardly believe how beautiful it looked. And, best of all, it covered up the entire problem area.
Then he noticed the woman walking down the center aisle. Her face was white as a sheet. "Pastor," she asked, "where did you get that tablecloth?”
Before he could explain, she asked him to check the lower right corner to see if the initials, EBG, were crocheted into it there. They were! She exclaimed that those were her initials and, that she had made this tablecloth 35 years before in Austria!
The woman could hardly believe it as the pastor told her how he had just found and purchased the tablecloth that afternoon. The over-whelmed 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. It was planned that her husband would follow her the next week. However, she was captured, sent to prison, and never saw her husband or her home again.
The pastor offered to give her the tablecloth, but she insisted that the pastor keep it for the church. The pastor then suggested he drive her home, as that was the least he could do. She lived on the other side of Staten Island and had come to Brooklyn for the day for a house-cleaning job.
What a wonderful service the church had on Christmas Eve. The sanctuary was almost full. The music was beautiful and spirits were high. At the end of the service the pastor and his wife greeted everyone at the door; many said that they would return.
One older man, whom the pastor recognized from the neighborhood, continued to sit in one of the pews, staring at the front wall of the sanctuary. The pastor wondered why he wasn't leaving. The man asked him where he got the tablecloth hanging on that wall. He explained that it was identical to one that his wife had made years ago when they lived in Austria before the war…how could there be two tablecloths so much alike?
He told the pastor how the Nazis came and how he had insisted his wife flee for her safety. The plan was that he would follow her in a few days. However, he was arrested and put into a concentration camp. He never saw his wife or his home again for all the years in between.
The pastor asked the man if he would allow him to take him for a little ride. They drove to Staten Island to the same house where the pastor had taken the woman three days earlier. He helped the man climb the stairs to the woman's apartment and knocked on the door…he then witnessed the greatest Christmas reunion he could ever imagine.
- Author Unknown
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REUNION…an instance of two or more people coming together again after a period of separation.
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IF YOU LOOK FOR ME AT CHRISTMAS …
I'm no longer just in Bethlehem, I'm right there where you are.
You may not be aware of me amid the celebrations —
You'll have to look beyond the stores and all the decorations.
But if you take a moment from your list of things to do
And listen to your heart, you'll find I'm waiting there for you.
You're the one I want to be with, you're the reason that I came,
And you'll find me in the stillness as I'm whispering your name.
Love, Jesus
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God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 1 John 4:9 NLT
So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son. John 1:14 NLT
I have come as a light to shine in this dark world, so that all who put their trust in me will no longer remain in the dark. John 12:46 NLT
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If you liked this story and would like a copy of either of my books,
they are available on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle format:
If you have a story or testimony that you think might bless others,
I invite you to send it by email to me (Kenneth Kersey) at godsotherways@me.com.
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