Friday, January 1, 2010

Makulit Ka Ba?

I was cleaning my room just in time for welcoming the New Year, when my niece barged in.

She crawled all over the place.

She touched everything.

She shouted.

She laughed.

She basically messed up what was already a mess to begin with.

You see, she’s just four years old.

And when you’re four, you feel that the whole world revolves around you.

While she was doing a great job in cluttering the place up, and distracting me from the task at hand, she would ask questions like “What’s this?” or “What are you doing?” or “What’s this for?” And she wouldn’t stop there.

She would say it a hundred times over.

Around the corner, she’d also say “Look Uncle Migoy! Look! Look!” Until I would really, honestly, crane my neck and look, she wouldn’t stop.

In short, she’s makulit.

(C’mon, you know what I’m trying to picture out here.)

Then I heard something unexpected.

She stepped on my pile of books, and blurted out “I’m sorry!” in her cute and high-pitched voice. “That’s okay,” I’d say.

Then she edged over my heap of dirty clothes, and again, “Oops, sorry!” she said.

And over and over again, when she would touch what isn’t allowed to be touched, and when she would kick what isn’t allowed to be kicked, her “Sorry” was like music to my ears.

But you know what the best part is?

I never got angry.

Actually, it kept me entertained.

With my two words, ‘that’s okay,’ she knew she was out of danger.

Even though I wanted to send her out and ban her for life for entering my room, my heart just couldn’t take the kulit-cuteness.

I wasn’t able to finish fixing my room because of that.

But hey, that kept me thinking.

Aren’t we the same with God?

We keep on stepping on his Books, kicking his Things, and scattering our mess all over the Place.

We make wrong decisions.

We waste so much time.

We struggle with so many temptations, half of which, we don’t even resist.

But I know that we have a big God.

A God who is ready to forgive us no matter how messed up we are.

A God who is ready to accept us, because in his eyes, we are but four year olds: clumsy, impulsive, and thoughtless four-year-olds.

At times we would hesitate to say sorry, especially when we know that we meant those wrong deeds, but how many of us would say sorry nonetheless –

For whatever graces it might bring us?

It’s just like tugging at the shirt of your mom, saying sorry for eating the last piece of cake, when in fact she was just letting you taste her share.

It’s just like snuggling up the shoulder of your girlfriend when she’s nagtatampo because you took too long playing DOTA at the computer shop.

It’s just like telling your teacher how clumsy you were because you slept late, and forgot to properly punctuate your sentences, and needed a second chance.

It’s being makulit because you know somewhere in that person’s heart is the chance to forgive.

We have all been makulit the past year – just like four-year-olds.

But the question is, have we also been makulit in looking at the wrong things we did, and saying ‘sorry’ for them?

Because I’m sure we already made a whole lot of mess in our lives.

And if I, human as I am, had the heart to turn a blind eye to my little niece’s quirks, how much more does God turn his loving heart towards us, if only we tug on his shirt, and persistently say “I’m Sorry”?

But don’t get me wrong.

This doesn’t mean that those two words are enough.

Just like how your boyfriend wants you to stop being too clingy when it comes to his private life, or like how your dad wants you to become more useful around the house, God expects our ‘sorry’ to also come with change.

And what better way to change, than to tell Him you’ll start this New Year?

No worries.

Who says God will leave you alone?

Be makulit.

Say sorry.

Change for the better.

Happy New Year!