Quiet time with mateo

Six third-graders proudly held up the yellow star-shaped parols that they had just made.

"Wow!" they exclaimed, amazed that they could make a parol. They had gotten a lot of help from Manong Popoy, the town's best parol maker.

"See, nothing to it! Now that you've each made a small parol, you can also make a big one in a different shape - like the one I just made," he said, going inside his house.

He returned with a pure white parol trimmed with curled papers. It had an unusual shape.

"Letter G!" they chorused. The parol was so beautiful!

"When I was your age," he narrated. "I felt I was the poorest and dumbest in school. So I created trouble for everybody!"

Gasps.

"I was baaaad! I ran away from home!"

More gasps.

"But for years, my parents never stopped praying and waiting for me to return home."

"But why is your parol shaped like a G?" Teo asked, puzzled.

"G - for God! He loved me then, even if I hated myself because I thought I was poor and dumb. He loves me now. G - for Grace. I never deserved God's and my parents' forgiveness for my hateful behavior, but they still forgave me. G - for Good. God turned me from bad to good."

"Wow!" another chorus.

"Every parol that I make today reminds me of the Star of Bethlehem that led people to our Savior in the manger," Popoy said, hanging the G parol on a tree branch.

***

Prayer:

Lord, thank You for loving me the way I am. Amen.

Memory verse:

"You made my whole being. You formed me in my mother's womb." Psalm 139:13