i’m already back in Singapore.
i honestly can’t remember what i did on my sixth day in London, except for the fact that we watched Les Miserables in the evening.
It was my fourth time watching this particular musical, a perennial favourite, though my absolute favourite musical(s) are Rent and Cats.
i thought the actor who played Jean Valjean was a little off, not enough oomph when this character basically sets the tone and carries the musical. It was a pretty good performance overall though and most of the audience gave the company a standing ovation. i stayed in my seat.
Maybe it was because i was watching it for the fourth time.
It’s a timeless musical and i’m glad i caught it again because this was the first time i was watching it as a Christian.
This time the themes of salvation and redemption leapt out at me and i couldn’t help but wonder whether God had been trying to call me to recognise my need for His grace and redeption in Jesus Christ, as personified in the character of Jean Valjean, the three previous times.
i suppose He did.
He doesn’t just work in mysterious ways, you know. He works in manifold ways too, surpassing to the nth degree all manner of human understanding and comprehension.
But, hey, He’s God, right?
i really shouldn’t be the least bit surprised.
Thank you, Father, for Les Miserables.
What Have I Done
[VALJEAN]
What have I done?
Sweet Jesus, what have I done?
Become a thief in the night,
Become a dog on the run
And have I fallen so far,
And is the hour so late
That nothing remains but the cry of my hate,
The cries in the dark that nobody hears,
Here where I stand at the turning of the years?
If there’s another way to go
I missed it twenty long years ago
My life was a war that could never be won
They gave me a number and murdered Valjean
When they chained me and left me for dead
Just for stealing a mouthful of bread
Yet why did I allow that man
To touch my soul and teach me love?
He treated me like any other
He gave me his trust
He called me brother
My life he claims for God above
Can such things be?
For I had come to hate the world
This world that always hated me
Take an eye for an eye!
Turn your heart into stone!
This is all I have lived for!
This is all I have known!
One word from him and I’d be back
Beneath the lash, upon the rack
Instead he offers me my freedom
I feel my shame inside me like a knife
He told me that I have a soul,
How does he know?
What spirit comes to move my life?
Is there another way to go?
I am reaching, but I fall
And the night is closing in
And I stare into the void
To the whirlpool of my sin
I’ll escape now from the world
From the world of Jean Valjean
Jean Valjean is nothing now
Another story must begin!
[He tears up his yellow ticket-of-leave]
[Constables leave. The bishop addresses Valjean]
But remember this, my brother
See in this some higher plan
You must use this precious silver
To become an honest man
By the witness of the martyrs
By the Passion and the Blood
God has raised you out of darkness
I have bought your soul for God!
