A school bus was making its final round of the day. A young boy jumped off just as a man jogged by.

"Hey, mister," the boy shouted, "can I jog with you?" The jogger wasn't in a hurry so he nodded and the boy joined in jogging. Within five minutes the boy gave the jogger pretty much his whole life story. His name was Matthew, he was ten years old, precocious and full of life.

Abruptly, however, Matthew stopped. "Look at this," he ordered as he showed the jogger an 81/2 by 11 inch piece of paper that had been laminated. In big black letters across the top it said, "Fourth Grade Math Whiz." Underneath was Matthew's name, the school name, the date and the teacher's signature.

His pride was undaunted. "I'm a math whiz," he went on beaming, not waiting for the jogger to come to that conclusion by reading the card only inches from his face. "Last year my sister was the math whiz," he continued, "but this year, I'm the math whiz!"

"That's great," the man replied.

"Yep," said Matthew. "But you know what's really great? When I get home, my dad's gonna be real proud."

And isn't that what we all really want? We want to make our father proud, our mother proud. We want to earn the esteem of family members and business colleagues and friends at church. And that's fine. But more important than all of these, says Jesus, is to make God proud of us. We do that when we look around to those who are helpless, hurting, the destitute and do something for those who can do nothing for us in return. It's all right to want to be one of the beautiful people, says Jesus, as long as you understand who the beautiful people really are. They are not those who are always buying more trinkets than their neighbors. They are those who are using the blessings of life to bless others.

(Adapted from Terry Hershey, Go Away Come Closer)