'To Love Another Person is to See the Face of God'

Yes, I am well aware that the title of this piece is from the musical Les Miserables. And I'm going to be a hipster for a moment and reassure you that I loved the musical way before I'd heard there was going to be a movie (I'm a Theatre Major, after all - by definition I almost have to have an unhealthy love for the show). And then I'm going to be a real hipster and say that I also love the movie that came out in 1998 starring Liam Neeson as Valjean and Geoffrey Rush as Javert (based on the book, not the musical. It also has Uma Thurman, Clare Danes, and Hans Matheson - it's really got a spectacular cast.)

All my hipster-ness is beside the point. The point is, the line "to love another person is to see the face of God" has really stuck out to me lately. Yesterday we listened to the soundtrack (of the movie, which is not my favorite. My favorite is the 10th anniversary version, with Colm Wilkinson as Valjean and Lea Salonga as Eponine. [ultra-hispter momen: I watched it on VHS] But I digress.) and then in small group later that night, the lesson didn't have anything to do with Les Mis, but one of the points we covered basically restated the line.

My small group is going through Wonderstruck by Margaret Feinberg, and last night we watched the first video in the series for group discussion. The biggest point she made in the introductory video was that Jesus wants to meet us, reveal himself to us, and surprise us. One example that she used to illustrate this hit me hard when she stated "Jesus reveals himself in our relationships."

"To love another person is to see the face of God."

Okay, so there are differences in the statements. But one certainly serves to remind us (or at least me) of the other.

For sure, there are many different kinds of love. In the musical, the spirit of Fantine sings the line, so she could be speaking of the parental love between herself and Cosette, or Valjean and Cosette, the romantic love between Cosette and Marius, the protective love between herself and Valjean, Eponine's sacrificial love for Marius, etc. But what if, in this line, we used the word "love" the way Jesus does when he commands us to "love your neighbor"? In this case, when we love others by serving them or being kind to them because God first loved us, we experience the kind of love that God has for his people. Not only that, but the face of God shines through us for other people to see.

I think all that I've discovered and discussed in this post has changed how I view that particular line of Les Mis. The entire musical is already a wonderful allegory of the dichotomy of Grace vs. Legalism. But a single line that I've always just brushed off now echoes in my heart and reveals the wonder of God to me. Isn't it incredible that God can use such artwork in this way?