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Friday, December 19, 2014

THE TABLECLOTH -God does work in mysterious ways..A beautiful story….makes you understand that everything happens for a reason.

Christianity can be condensed into four words: Admit, Submit, Commit and Transmit. -Samuel Wilberforce

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THE TABLECLOTH 

God does work in mysterious ways..

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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. 
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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.
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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 abeautiful,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 andher  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 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.
True  Story – submitted by Pastor Rob Reid 
I know this has gone around before but is proof of …GOD-incidence
A beautiful story….makes  you understand that everything happens  for  a reason.532200_10152062308141530_1499016359_n
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