THINGS HAPPEN FOR A REASON BY: Pastor Rob Reid
The brand new pastor and his wife, newly assigned to their first ministry, to reopen a church in suburban Brooklyn, arrived in October excited about their opportunities. When they saw their church, it was 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 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 of wall of the sanctuary just behind the pulpit, beginning about head high.
After seeing what damage the rain had caused the pastor cleaned up the mess and not knowing what else to do decided to postpone the Christmas Eve Service and headed for home.
On the way he noticed that a local business was having a flea market type sale for charity so he stopped in. While looking around one of the items he came across was a beautiful, handmade, ivory colored, crocheted tablecloth with exquisite work, fine colors and a Cross embroidered right in the center. The Cross was just the right size to cover up the hole in the front wall. After making this wonderful find 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 her bus; unfortunately for her she missed it. The pastor seeing this invited her to wait in the warm church for the next bus which was coming in about 45 minutes from now.
The women thanked the pastor and after coming in she found a seat one of the pews and paid no attention to the pastor while he got a ladder, hangers, etc., to put up the tablecloth as a wall a tapestry. Once the tablecloth was hung the pastor could hardly believe how beautiful it looked and it covered up the entire problem area.
While looking at the beauty of this tablecloth he was startled back to the present as he noticed the women walking down the center aisle towards him. Her face was as white as a sheet. “Pastor,” she asked, “where did you get that tablecloth?” The pastor explained how he found it earlier in the day. The women asked him if he could check the lower right hand corner to see if the initials EBG were crocheted into it there. To the pastor’s surprise they were. Once the pastor overcame his shock he sat down and started talking with the women. During their discussion the pastor found out these were the initials of the women and she had made this tablecloth 35 years ago in Austria.
The women could hardly believe it after all these years. The women 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 very next week, but was captured. After his capture he was sent to prison and she never saw her husband or her home again.
The pastor after hearing her story wanted to give her back the tablecloth; but she insisted that the pastor keep it for the church. At the end of their discussion the pastor insisted on driving her home that night, he felt that it was the least he could do for her. She lived on the other side of Staten Island and was only in Brooklyn for the day doing a housecleaning job.
On December 24th what a wonderful service they had on that first Christmas Eve in the newly reopened church. 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.
Once everyone else had gone the pastor went over to him and the man asked him where he got the tablecloth on the front wall because it was identical to the 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 how he was supposed to follow her, but he was arrested and put in prison. He never saw wife and his home again all of the 35 years in between.
After their conversation the pastor asked him if he would allow him to take him for a little ride. The man even though a little confused by this decided that this would be okay. They drove to Staten Island to the same house where the pastor had taken the women just three days earlier.
Once out of the car he helped the man climb the three flights of stairs to the women’s apartment. He told this still confused man to knock on the door. After the women opened the door and the two of them having gotten over their utter shock of what they were seeing; he saw the greatest Christmas gift one could ever imagine.
I really love that story and it just struck a wonderful chord with me. I hope you enjoyed it and found respite on your search for christain cash gifting.
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