I have been punished, but now God has pardoned me. And I smiled three times, because God sent me to learn three truths, and I have learnt them.
"Significance" also means simply meaning. By this definition, the meaning of the three truths learned by Michael are these. The first truth is that what "dwells in" humans is love. The shoemaker's wife was bound up in fear for the winter and adequately meeting their needs, then, when spoken to of God by her husband, she remembers the admonitions to love and help those who are suffering. In so remembering and doing, she showed Michael pity and that love dwells within. Later, the second truthwas revealed when the man ordered boots to last a year, Michael could see by the presence of the angel of death that the man's life would go no longer than that night. From this he learned the truth that humans do not know their own needs; this is further significant because Tolstoy makes the point that humans are meant to live in unity instead of in solitude.
The significance of the third truth is that what humans live by is love. Love, then, hasdouble significance: it is what dwells within and is shown as pity and kindness, and it is what humans live by as others meet our needs. The significance is compoundedwhen the two are considered in relation to the second truth: humans don't know their own needs.