Do You Hear the People Sing? aka Why I Love Les Mis

While watching Les Mis on Friday night, I thought my chest might burst from emotion.  I know it's not amazing like that for everyone.  Almost three hours is long time to listen to people sing if you are like my husband.  Not so for me, however.  I say, if you can, see it on the big screen!  Here are some of my thoughts on the matter:

(I don't think these are spoilers, but be warned that I do reference different plot points.)

• We are all criminals like Val Jean.  We have all broken God's rules in some way, even if it's a rule we wish didn't exist.  Our souls do answer to the One who made us when we die.  And we are all guilty.  At the film's beginning Val Jean is a gruesome visual of the torment and never-ending sentence of sin.  There is no escape for him, and he visibly wrestles with this identity from the film's start to finish.  I get that in my own struggle with my rebellious and selfish heart.  It is serious for him, and we have a much more serious condition than we think most of the time.  Sin is real.  Black-teeth real.  It rots the human heart in a way that can only be cleaned by One.
• Forgiveness is the first turning point for Val Jean.  He fights his pride to accept forgiveness, which you can feel in the movie.  He is angry.  Why would someone be gracious to him?  And yet he is humbled and accepts it.  He is transformed from an angry man into one that learns to love others more than himself.  He sacrifices and helps, even when it comes at great cost to himself.  We see such a huge change in his character visually (no more black teeth).  It illustrates what's going on in his heart.
• The story holds grief and loss for almost every character in some way.  They are all longing for someone or something out of reach: innocence, a child, justice, love, friends who've died.  I cried their tears with them, because those feelings are very real to me.  
• "Do You Hear the People Sing" makes me want to go to heaven!  The singing is going to be so good in heaven and it will express what needs to be expressed!  A place to belong.  Voices united.  No more injustice and pain.  Why does this simple song say all of those things?  I don't know.  But it does.  And I can't stop being comforted by it.  We were made with voices for a reason.  There is One who is worthy of being praised with them.  All together, at once, to a beautiful song.  Anything that points me to this reality is worth listening to!  
• Javier can't accept grace.  He believes he is doing God's work.  He is ruled by his pride which tells him he can't live in a world where he forgives Val Jean.  (And where he forgives himself for failure.)  "A world that cannot hold."  It's heartbreaking, yet it is exactly how most of us live.  We think we are living a good life and being a good person, and we don't want to accept that those terms are not acceptable to God.  We need to live a perfect life.  We are already guilty, and our only hope is to receive the perfect life of Jesus in our place, and to believe our sins were already punished on his cross.  It's hard to be humble and receive it, but it's literally our only hope.  So do we refuse like Javier, or bend a knee like Val Jean?  Both men are fallen in themselves.  This is real life folks.  Can we call this allegory?  Can we relish the moments of these two characters wrestling with each other?
• "I Dreamed a Dream" is pretty much my anthem right now.  I know I will get over it, but right now it says what I feel and I need to hear it multiple times a day.  Is there a song that better grieves a broken heart and shows that there's still a point in hoping?  Grief and hope; my best friends lately.  My heart groans and heals every time I listen to Fantine saying the line: But there are dreams that cannot be, And there are storms we cannot weather
• Don't you love how Cosette and Marius make references to dreams in their songs?  It's honoring Fantine, and they don't even know it.  Very sweet.
• "Bring Him Home" aches with a selfless love.  How often do people sing about that kind of love?  It's so unique and pure.  I love how Val Jean pleads with God to save Marius because he acknowledges that decisions of life and death fall under God's authority.  Even though he sees God as the authority, he pleads.  And God honors his request.  It's really beautiful and I am inspired.
• The church scene at the end.  Incredible.  Val Jean is so close to the end of his suffering.  Still tied to earth by love for Cosette, but more tied to heaven by love for God.  Looking at the story of his life from the last chapter.  You are so exhausted along with Val Jean by this point, and more than ever you want relief for him.  Then they sing and your chest explodes.  Ahhhhhh!  This movie wakes up my soul and makes me feel things about the way I was made.  Can you see how dramatic I am being about it?  Oh boy.  Sorry.  Can't stop.
• I remember my younger self thinking that people in movies and musicals were too dramatic, but I am starting to realize that those dramatic parts of us come alive when we experience great pain.  And it's a good thing to express it, or see it expressed.  It makes the load easier to bear when you are sharing it, even if just with a character on the screen. I wonder how old I will be when I really start liking opera if this keeps up.

Are there other movies that refer to eternal themes like this one?  I can only think of To End All Wars and Narnia.  Leave me a comment if you think of others. :)

P.S. I saw the doctor today for a surgery follow-up and he was pleased with how my body is healing.  He told me to take prenatal vitamins to resupply iron and gave me a clean bill of health.  That felt pretty amazing.  Thanks again for prayers for physical recovery and healing.  What a blessing it is to be healthy again.