It’s smart to be generous, this story adapted from Leo Tolstoy tells us why.

There was once a man who lived in Moscow and made his living repairing old shoes. His name was Martin the Cobbler.

As he looked out the tiny window from his basement shop he could see the many different shoes of the hundreds of people who passed down the street daily. He knew them by their shoes, for he had repaired most of them, and Martin was known as a good and honest workman.

Martin the Cobbler was also a devout man who read and prayed the Scriptures when he was not repairing shoes. Once, when reading the Gospel he came across the passage, “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty? When did we welcome you into our home and clothe your nakedness?”

Martin wondered, for he had never seen the Lord on the streets of Moscow. He wondered out loud, “What do our Lord’s shoes look like?”

That night, Jesus came to Martin in a dream saying he would visit him the next day.

Will Jesus pay Martin the promised visit? Come back next time and find out!