Last weekend, several dreams came true. The high school drama troupe I direct presented a stunning production of Les Miserables. Another one of those dreams was being able to work with a dream cast, an amazing, hard-working group of students. Several of our leads are students I have enjoyed working with for over four years. By our closing night, I was very emotional. Much of that emotion has to do with how much the stories of Jean Valjean, Eponine, Fantine, Cosette, and Marius, to name a few, really appeal to my heart and the values I long to live by. Perhaps strongest in this show's many beautiful themes is the transforming power of grace and redemption. Jean Valjean, imprisoned nineteen years for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his family, could have resorted to living a life of bitterness. Instead, he raises the orphaned Cosette, after making a promise to her mother Fantine. While pursued by the relentless servant to the law, Javert, Valjean could have easily defaulted on his promise. Such promises are not easy to keep in our SELFISH world. I know I am often among the selfish in how I live my life. Valjean's commitment to protect and care for Cosette inspires and moves me. His life's testimony returns my heart to a place where I again clearly see and feel the tremendous significance of the sometimes scary journey our family is on.
Despite how many times I listen to this selection from the show, I cry. I cry when listen to the twenty plus variations that exist from everyone from Colm Wilkinson, the original Valjean, to Josh Groban to Ramin Karimloo, a recent actor who played the title character on Broadway. When Marine City High School's Matt Copley auditioned with "Bring Him Home", I cried. And just about every rehearsal and performance where Matt performed this song, I cried. "Bring Him Home" profoundly affects me as a dad. There is such a raw simplicity about the longing to see "one's son", a parent's child, come home safe. I haven't even begun the season of my children driving a vehicle yet. I'm going to be a nervous wreck, waiting long hours on home's front porch in anticipation of their arrival. And don't get me started about thinking about any of children heading off to college or Scout getting married. Nope. Can't go there.
At those barricades, the night before just about every young man would lose his life, fighting for cause that stirred their hearts and soul, I have to imagine there were many doubts and fears. And even as forms have recently been authenticated by the consulate in Chicago and we will soon be filing our Form I-800A, we often feel we are at the barricades. We have entered into a season of filling out grants, and in that process you begin to fully realize the financial mountain you have already begun to climb and the one ahead of you. With our special guy coming home soon form China, we know that his hemophilia will bring unique and special challenges. And while our family embraces the changes to come, there are moments, where we wonder at what the year ahead holds. We too, at our own various "barricades" in this journey find ourselves fearful and uncertain what the next day will hold.
But we continue to pray and trust God to walk with us through the uncertainly and the fear of what lies ahead. And this journey, with full gratitude, has forced us to trust God more. We have no choice. So with each day, a prayer, very much like that of Jean Valjean's is said. And we know a similar prayer is said by Jonas in China. We long for the day when he will be part of the McCulloch family.
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"Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the EAST and gather you from the west" Archives
March 2017
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