Oh Jesus, why didn’t You come?

Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me. (Matthew 25:40 ESV)

 One of my favorite Christmas stories is about an elderly cobbler who dreamed one Christmas Eve that Jesus would visit him the next day.
 So the next morning he got up and decorated his shop and sat down to wait for Him. The hours passed and Jesus didn’t come. But an old man stepped inside to get out of the winter cold. As they talked, the cobbler couldn’t help noticing the holes in the old man’s shoes, so before he left, he reached up on the shelf and gave him a new pair.
 Still, Jesus didn’t come. But a woman knocked at the door and told him she hadn’t eaten that day, and could he spare anything for her family. The cobbler gave her the lunch he’d prepared for himself. Then he sat down again to wait for Jesus.
 Instead, he heard a child crying in front of his shop. It was a boy who had been separated from his parents and was lost. This was in the days before telephones, so he put on his coat, locked his shop, and led the boy to his address a few blocks away.
 That evening, the cobbler reflected on his day with a twinge of sadness that his dream hadn’t come true. Oh Jesus, why didn’t You come?
 And then he seemed to hear a voice saying, I came three times today. I was the man with the cold feet. I was the woman you gave food to eat. I was the boy on the street.
 Jesus had come. And the cobbler had cared for Him without knowing it. —Ronan Keane [1]

 It is Christmas every time you let God love others through you. Yes, it is Christmas every time you smile at your brother and offer him your hand. —Mother Teresa (1910–1997)

[1] Activated Jesus and the Cobbler