Happy New Years blog readers :] I’ve missed updated over the holidays and I’m super glad to be back and blogging. David and I have been traveling for the holidays since the 20th of December; we’ve been gone for over two weeks! To say we’re excited to get back to our own home is an understatement! Unfortunately my external hard drive that I was using to edit over the break is on the fritz, so you’ll have to wait until Wednesday for an adorable Christmas shoot :] So, in lieu of pretty pictures today, I’ll be reflecting on some music that’s been running through my mind since Christmas!
So I must start by saying, I’m obsessed with musicals. Like in love. Something in my heart swells when people sing together, when story is told through song…so needless to say I was anxiously awaiting Les Miserables in theatres. I had seen it on Broadway in high school and the music has been ringing in my ears since then. The day after Christmas, still fresh from wisdom teeth pain, Jobin and I snuck my first real meal into the theatre (chipotle of course) and met my best friend for hours of raw emotion set to a phenomenal score. Three hours later, as the credits rolled, I wiped my eyes and tried to compose myself…no luck.
So yes, I’m an emotional person, I cried every time Hugh Jackman sang, but this last scene had tugged on my heart, given me hope and showed me a reality that I am anxiously awaiting.
And if you haven’t seen this movie I’m going to ask you to stop here…this is my official spoiler alert.
…
Everyone dies in this movie…I mean it. Everyone. (save for the comic relief and the newly married couple) Even the heroes. Even those fighting for justice. Even children. Even those who have sacrificed everything. They die.
But…there is hope. After the main character, Jean Valjean’s death happens the music elevates and soars. If it were Broadway the curtains would open to reveal tons of people standing on a barricade, what is supposed to symbolize Heaven, singing a song that could only be brought on by pure and complete restoration. Some of the lyrics are as follows:
Come with me
Where chains will never bind you
All your grief, at last behind you
Do you hear the people sing?
Lost in the valley of the night
It is the music of a people who are climbing to the light
For the wretched of the earth there is a flame that never dies
Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise
Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Somewhere beyond the barricade is there a world you long to see?
Do you hear the people sing?
Say do you hear the distant drums?
It is the future that they bring when tomorrow comes!
Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Somewhere beyond the barricade is there a world you long to see?
Do you hear the people sing?
Say do you hear the distant drums?
It is the future that they bring when tomorrow comes!
Seeing this movie, so fresh from celebrating the birth of our Savior King, was a reminder of what He had to die for in the first place. We needed saving, desperately, and are still in need of it everyday.
We are sinful. We are messed up. When Jean Valjean sings of his whirlpool of sin, I can feel it in my heart. I know that I am wicked before I am anything else. I know that my heart first desires anything else before it will desire God. Before it desires righteousness. I am selfish.
And that’s why I need Jesus. That’s why I need to be restored. That’s why I need hope beyond this tainted world that only Christ has to offer. That’s why we all need a future hope. This world has nothing to offer us, but cheap imitations of the real love that is offered in relationship with God. But thankfully and divinely, Jesus sacrificed Himself and rose from the grave so that we could have relationship with Him, so that one day we could spend eternity with Him.
He begs us to come with Him, to follow Him where “chains will never bind us.” He asks us to look forward to a day where grief will be no more. He offers us freedom. He reassures us that although the outlook is bleak in this world, “the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.” He promises us this reunion, this restoration, if only we agree to accept Him, to follow Him alone.
So I must ask, do you long for somewhere beyond the barricade…somewhere beyond the here and now? Are your hopes set on Heaven? Or is your heart often muddled the way that mine is…too consumed in this world, only catching glimpses of the real hope that Jesus offers.
Thankfully, Les Miserables reminded me that there is a world I long for that is not here. A world beyond the barricade where all will be restored. Where all will be made new. Where love is full and authentic. And tears are no more.
Praise God for that.
