THE musical 'Les Misérables' - based on the novel by
French author Victor Hugo - tells the story of Jean Valjean, an
embittered convict released on parole after a 19-year prison sentence.
His crime? Stealing a loaf of bread for his starving family.
On the run after breaking his parole, Valjean finds
refuge with a kindly bishop, who gives him food and shelter. He repays
this kindness by stealing some of the bishop’s silver, but when the
theft is discovered the bishop offers him forgiveness rather than
sending him back to prison.
This action turns Valjean’s life around. He vows to
live up to the bishop’s trust in him, and build a new life devoted to
serving humanity. Taking on a new identity, he rises to a respectable
position in society, but his new life is thrown into turmoil when he
hears that an innocent man has been mistaken for him and arrested. With
everything to lose, a desperate Valjean prays for divine help and
guidance: ‘God on high,/ Hear my prayer,/ In my need - / You have always
been there.’
It’s a prayer that humankind has been making since
the beginning of time. We find it in Psalm 130: ‘Out of the depths I cry
to you, Lord… Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. If you,
Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? But with you there
is forgiveness’ (Psalm 130:1-4 New International Version).
And - also since the beginning of time - God has been
listening and responding to those who go to him in a spirit of true
penitence and ask for forgiveness.
Reaching the point of rock-bottom desperation can
also be the start of a new way of life. Sometimes, that’s the only time
when we are ready to listen to what God has to say to us, and accept his
offer of help and forgiveness. No matter how many times we may fail,
God does not cast us aside as useless or no-hopers. The psalmist tells
us: ‘With the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption’
(130:7).
The story of Valjean may be imaginary, but God’s love is real. Could it turn your life around?
UK & Ireland War Cry June 2013
