A CHRISTMAS REUNION
The brand new pastor and his wife, newly assigned
to their first ministry, to reopen a church in urban 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 18th were ahead of schedule and just about
finished. On December 19th 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 sunk when he saw that the roof had leaked, causing a large area
of plaster about 6 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, hand-made, ivory
colored, crocheted table cloth 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 crotched 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 concentration camp. He never saw his wife
or his home again for 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.
--- Author Unknown
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