The story does not end with Mateo becoming a pastor or a hero. It ends on a Tuesday. Daniel has the flu. Elena is working late. And Mateo sits on the edge of his son’s bed, holding a cool cloth to the boy’s forehead. Daniel mumbles, “Dad, you stayed.”
He thought of the final chapter of Berg’s book: “La gloria de Dios no es que usted sea feliz, sino que usted sea santo. Y la santidad es simplemente amor hecho hábito.” (The glory of God is not that you be happy, but that you be holy. And holiness is simply love made habitual.) The story does not end with Mateo becoming
In the quiet, he thanks God—not for the transformation he can see, but for the process he can’t. The old mug still sits on the counter, still chipped. But when Mateo catches his reflection in the kitchen window now, he doesn’t see a broken pot. He sees a vessel still in the Potter’s hands. Elena is working late
But the words from Transformados En Su Imagen whispered in his mind: “La transformación comienza donde termina tu fuerza.” (Transformation begins where your strength ends.) Y la santidad es simplemente amor hecho hábito
That night, Mateo knelt beside his bed—something he hadn’t done in twenty years—and wept. He wasn’t crying for his failures. He was crying because for the first time, he understood that transformation was not a project. It was a surrender.
He nodded. “I’m being remade.”