Gosh, this story just breaks me and then puts me back together again.

After finishing the movie, Les Miserables, I could not help but realize that my emotions were absolutely everywhere. I was crying basically at every scene (well, tearing up) because I really could barely handle the beauty and realness of this story.

It is a story of sadness, pain, and death. But it is also a story of hope, love, and resurrection.

It is a story of Jesus.

Les Miserables is a perfect example of what it looks like to live for Jesus. The author, Victor Hugo, gives us a character who shows that we can all be merciful and loving. He shows that life is not a matter of our circumstances, but of the circumstance of our hearts. He shows that there is poverty and pain and corruption and evil but that there is also so so so much good in the world to fight that mess.

Victor Hugo writes not to show the reality we face, but to demonstrate how far love can go.

Whether it’s the love shared between the revolutionaries, or the Bishop for Jean Valjean, or the love Valjean has for Fantine who showed love for Cosette, we see the truth of love so clearly in this story. God started a chain with one man, the Bishop, and his love was a chain reaction for so many souls to know Jesus.

When we choose to live our lives for Jesus, we do not choose an easier life. However, we live a life full of goodness. We live a life full of inner joy that is spread throughout the world like a light in the night.

Sometimes I even think to myself, “What will it take for me to be like Jean Valjean?”

Someone as good, someone as honest, someone as brave and loving and merciful, is it even possible?

I look to him and think, well, how the heck did Jean Valjean become so remarkable? And that answer has nothing to do with him, but everything to do with God.

Victor Hugo is brilliant because he knows exactly what he is talking about.

Jean Valjean’s circumstances never got easier. He wasn’t always rich in society’s standards- he wasn’t always in what the world would call a “good position”. I mean heck, he rarely ever got what he wanted.

The point rests in that even though life on the outside didn’t change much, his dependence on God only grew more and more.

On the other hand, Jesus just got a whole lot sweeter.

Jean Valjean is great because God is great. Les Miserables is moving because God is moving. God lives through stories, and there is no doubt about that.

Xoxo,

Ash