Papa Panov

Originally written as ‘Père  Martin’, by Reuben Saillens… retold by Leo Tolstoy as ‘Where Love is, God is’… I return to ‘Papa Panov’.

On Christmas Eve, an elderly shoemaker, Papa Panov, is alone in his shop. His wife has died, his children have left home. He reads the Christmas story and sleeps. In a dream a voice tells him that Jesus will visit him on Christmas day.

He wakes up excited. Seeing a road sweeper, he invites him off the cold street into his warm shop to enjoy a cup of coffee. Later he sees a young woman with a baby; he invites them in, giving the baby some new shoes and warm milk.

The day passes. Papa Panov anticipates Jesus’ arrival. Beggars, children and passing strangers share his Christmas, but at the end of the day he sits down disappointed. Jesus hasn’t come.

Then, it’s as if he sees the road sweeper, the young woman, his other visitors in his shop. He hears the voice that he heard the night before:

‘I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me water, I was cold and you took me in. These people you have helped today – all the time you were helping them you were helping me.’

Panov realised. Jesus had come after all.

Musing…

…Christmas narratives, told in schools, churches, theatres, pubs… contain a strange mixture of spiritual mystery and human drama, incredible extraordinary and down-to-earth ordinary.

…I’ve recently chatted to a number of bereaved folk for whom Christmas will be lonely and tough. There’s an important role for them, helping others who are also struggling, sharing what they have rather than focusing on what they don’t have.

…Jesus turns up where I least expect him to. I may expect to find him in a church; he might turn up in a stable, in a shoemaker’s shop… He’s unpredictable. He isn’t always found with the great and good; he may turn up as a poor beggar, a needy mother…