Monday, December 23, 2019

Story of the Tablecloth- Miracles Can Happen at Christmas Time!


Story of the tablecloth:“Miracles Can Happen at Christmas Time” 
(copied and shared with joy!)

A few days before Christmas a number of years ago a terrible storm hit a suburb in Brooklyn, NY.   A driving rain hit the area and lasted for two days.

On Dec. 21 a pastor went over to his church which was an old building and his heart sank when he saw that the roof had leaked, causing a large area of plaster to fall off the wall just behind the pulpit.  The whole front of the church looked terrible. 

After cleaning up the mess as best he could, he thought about postponing the Christmas Eve service.  On the way home he noticed a local business having a flea market sale for charity and he stopped in.

One of the items for sale was a lovely ivory colored hand 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 plaster, so the minister bought it and headed back to the church.    By this time it had started to snow and he noticed an older woman standing on the corner who had missed the bus.   He invited her to wait in the warm church for the next bus forty-five minutes later.

She sat in the pew and paid no attention to him as he got a ladder and hung the table cloth up on the wall behind the pulpit.   The minister couldn’t believe how lovely it looked.  It covered up the whole problem area.

Then he noticed the woman walking down the center aisle, her face white as snow.

“Sir,” she asked, “where did you get that tablecloth?”

The minister explained.  Then the woman asked him to check the lower right corner and see if the initials EBG were crocheted into it.   They were.   They were the initials of the woman who had made that tablecloth thirty-five years earlier in Austria.

Then she explained that before WWII 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.  But she was captured, sent to prison and never saw her husband or home again and was able to get to America after the war.

The minister wanted to give her the tablecloth but, she made him keep it for the church
The minister insisted on driving her home which was on the other side of Staten Island
She had only been in Brooklyn for the day for a housecleaning job.

 On Christmas Eve the church had a wonderful service.  The building was almost filled.
At the end of the service, an older man continued to sit in the pew after others had left.
He asked the minister where he’d gotten the tablecloth on the front wall because it was identical to one his wife had made in Austria before the war.   He told the minister how he forced his wife to flee for safety and he was supposed to follow her but he got arrested and put in prison.  He never saw her or his home again, but finally made it to America.

The minister asked him if he would allow him to take him for a little ride.  They drove to Staten Island and a certain apartment the minister had visited earlier.  There the minister witnessed the greatest Christmas reunion he could ever imagine.
                                                              ***


Have a blessed Christmas and EXPECT a miracle in your life and family!

Elva Cobb Martin

Elva Cobb Martin is 2020 President of the SC Chapter of American Christian Fiction Writers. She is a former school teacher and a graduate of Anderson University and Erskine College. She has three inspirational novels published, Summer of Deception, a contemporary romantic suspense, and two historical romances, In a Pirate’s Debt, and Marisol. All three have spent time on Amazon’s 100 Best Sellers List for Women’s Religious Fiction. She has indie published a Bible study on Amazon, Power Over Satan, on the  believer's authority in Christ. Decision, Charisma, and Home Life have carried Elva's articles. She and her husband Dwayne are retired ministers. A mother and grandmother, Elva lives in South Carolina. Connect with her on her web site http://www.elvamartin.com, Twitter www.twitter.com/ElvaCobbMartin; Facebook http://www.facebook.com/elvacobbmartin;  and Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/elvacobbmartin  
 Link to her romance novels and non-fiction works 
on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2pOgVHI 
 

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