The Man Who Forgot His Name

In the 2012 film Les Misérables, there is a moment that stops your heart. Jean Valjean, a convict hardened by nineteen years in prison, is caught stealing silver from a bishop who had shown him kindness. When the police drag him back, Bishop Myriel does the unthinkable. He tells the officers that the silver was a gift — and then hands Valjean two silver candlesticks he had not even taken. "With this silver," the bishop says, "I've bought your soul for God."

Valjean stands alone in the street afterward, shattered. He has been called a thief, a convict, a number — 24601 — for so long that he no longer knows who he is. But the bishop called him something else entirely. He called him brother. And in that single act of undeserved grace, Valjean's identity begins to change. He tears up his parole papers. He becomes a new man — a mayor, a father, a protector of the weak.

This is what the grace of the Almighty does. The world hands us labels we never asked for — failure, addict, fraud, not enough. We carry those names until they feel tattooed on our souls. But God looks at us the way that bishop looked at Valjean. He does not see what we have done. He sees what we are becoming.

"If anyone is in Christ," Paul writes, "the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here."

You are not your worst moment. You are God's beloved. That is your true name.