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
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 America
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.
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 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
Link to her romance novels and non-fiction works on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2pOgVHI
