Page 2 - Good News December 2009 paper

ne of the most beautiful of all Christmas stories was told
by the American poet, Edwin Markham, about a cobbler, a
Ogodly man who made shoes in the old days. One night the
cobbler dreamt that the next day Jesus was coming to visit him.
The dream seemed so real that he got up very early the next
morning and hurried to the woods, where he gathered green
boughs to decorate his shop for the arrival of so great a Guest.
He waited all morning, but to his dismay, his shop remained quiet,
except for an old man who limped up to the door asking to come in
for a few minutes of warmth. While the man was resting, the
cobbler noticed that the old fellow's shoes were worn out.
Touched, the cobbler took a new pair from his shelves and saw to
it that the stranger was wearing them as he went on his way.
Throughout the afternoon the cobbler waited, but his only visitor
was an elderly woman. He had seen her struggling under a heavy
load of firewood, and he invited her, too, into his shop to rest.
Then he discovered that for two days she had had nothing to eat;
he saw to it that she had a nourishing meal before she went on her
way.
As night began to fall, the cobbler heard a child crying outside his
door. The child was lost and afraid. The cobbler went out, soothed
the youngster’s tears and, with the little hand in his, took the child
home.
When he returned, the cobbler was sad. He was convinced that
while he had been away he had missed the visit of his Lord. Now
he lived through the moments as he had imagined them: the
knock, the latch lifted, the radiant face, the offered cup. He would
have kissed the Hands where the nails had been, washed the Feet
where the spikes had entered. Then the Lord would have sat and
talked with him.
In his anguish, the cobbler cried out, “Why is it, Lord, that Your
feet delay? Have you forgotten that this was the day?” Then, soft
in the silence a Voice he heard:
“Lift up your heart for I kept My word. Three times I came to your
friendly door;
Three times My shadow was on your floor.
I was the man with the bruised feet.
I was the woman you gave food to eat.
I was the child on the homeless street.”
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