Martin the Cobbler is waiting for Jesus to visit him. So far a homeless man and a lost woman with a baby have come, but no Jesus.

All day long Martin kept peering up from his workbench and out the window, but he did not see Jesus.

Then he saw a boy steal an apple from the basket of an old woman who was hawking her fruit on the street. She grabbed the lad, and a struggle began.

Martin rushed out and separated the two. The boy denied stealing, but Martin said he had seen him steal the apple. Martin softly but firmly said, “Now you must ask Granny for forgiveness.”

The old woman threatened to turn the boy over to the police. She said the lad should be whipped. Martin said, “That is our way, but it is not God’s way.”

And then he began to tell her of Jesus’ parable of the man who forgave hiw servant a large debt. The woman and the boy stood there in the cold, listening to Martin’s every word.

Martin pulled a small coin from his pocket, paid the woman, and told the boy to take one of the apples to eat. The woman sighed, and began to carry her basket down the street.

The lad ran after her, and offered to carry her basket home fro her. And the two, old woman and young boy, began to talk with each other.