The Crocheted Tablecloth
Devotional by Helen Jesze, 15th May 2015
“Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations… Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.”
Romans 4, 18 – 21 NIV Bible
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 rundown 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 18th December, were ahead of schedule and just about finished.
On 19th December, 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 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 fleamarket type sale (secondhand goods) for charity, so he stopped in. One of the items was a beautiful, 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 as white as 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 and her husband were welltodo 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 she 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 neighbourhood 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 inbetween.
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 he had taken the woman three days earlier.
The pastor 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!
What a wonderful story of God’s intervention in two lonely people’s lives! We have lived many years in Germany and there are millions of persons, who originally came from eastern Europe and were displaced through WWII. We have heard tragic and thrilling stories from many of them.
My own husband, George, was born in Poland from German parents. Because of the war, his parents were separated for 10 years, then God brought them together by a series of miracles, but more of that another time!
In this story, some people would call it coincidence, but just look how many of them! There was the disappointment of the pastor after all his hard work, the ‘hunch’ to go and look in the flea market sale, finding the tablecloth, the idea to cover up the gaping hole on the pulpit wall, the woman running for her bus and missing it, the pastor’s invitation to shelter from the rain… and so we could go on.
The story does not tell us whether this couple were Christians who had been believing God to do the miracle of bringing them together again some day. Or perhaps they had been Christians earlier, but through their great disappointments and suffering had closed their heart to God. On the other hand, they may have had no personal relationship with Jesus at all. Yet we often hear that God works in the life of the unbeliever, and is constantly seeking to draw them to Himself, working in special ways to accomplish this end.
For those of us who know Jesus, our Scripture reading brings again before us the example of Abraham, who believed God for 25 years for his son, Isaac, to be born. God works in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform, the old hymn says, and that is so true. I want to encourage you today, if you are lonely, discouraged, desperate for someone you have lost long ago, or have some other situation where it seems impossible from a human standpoint. God is still in the miracle business! He still brings about those ‘divine coincidences’ working in the unseen spiritual world to bring about amazing answers for us!
Prayer:
Thank you Heavenly Father, that you can use anything you choose to bring
about answers to prayer, even like this tablecloth! Time is nothing to you, and
you are working out your divine plans, even in my life. Help me to walk in step
with you today, to obey those divine ‘nudges’ and to learn to be guided by your
Spirit and to hold onto your promise, even like faithful Abraham!
In Jesus Christ’s Name, Amen
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