In his dream, Jesus tells Martin the Cobbler that he will pay Martin a visit the next day.

A heavy snow fell that night. In the morning Martin looked out the window and saw the old homeless man, Stepanovich, dressed in rags and shoveling snow. Martin invited him in, sat him down next to the stove, and poured him tea.

Martin talked about his dream, and his favorite stories from the Bible at great length. He gave Stephanovich more tea and some bread, and then wondered out loud if he, Martin, wasn’t a fool to expect to see Jesus on the streets of Moscow.

Stepanovich smiled, and said, “I don’t know about such things. But I know you have given me food and comfort for both body and soul.

After the old man left, Martin saw a young woman dressed in thin, worn clothes carrying a baby. She was a stranger and obviously lost. Martin pulled her inside and invited her to sit at his table. He gave her a bowl of soup and some dark bread. and while she ate, he soothed the baby, talking to the babe softly.

Then Martin told the woman about his dream. She shrugged her shoulders and said, “Who knows? All things are possible.”

Before she left, he wrapped her and the baby in a warm old cloak of his.

A homeless man and a lost woman with a baby, but so far, no Jesus. Will he show up? Come back next time to find out.

Martin the Cobbler is a story by Leo Tolstoy.