When Love Adds the Candlesticks

In the 2012 film Les Misérables, there is a moment that stops your heart if you let it. Jean Valjean, freshly released from nineteen years in prison, is taken in by Bishop Myriel — fed, sheltered, treated like a guest. And Valjean repays that kindness by stealing the bishop's silver in the dead of night.

The police drag him back. The stolen silver is in his bag. The evidence is undeniable. Every person watching knows what justice demands.

But the bishop looks at Valjean and tells the officers he gave the silver as a gift. Then he reaches for two silver candlesticks — the most valuable things he owns — and presses them into Valjean's hands. "You left so early," he says gently, "you forgot I gave these also."

That is the moment everything changes. Not because Valjean earned it. Not because he deserved a second chance. But because someone loved him before he was lovable, and that unearned love rearranged his entire life.

The Apostle Paul wrote it plainly: "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). God did not wait for us to clean up, apologize, or return what we had stolen. He met us in our worst moment and handed us more than we ever thought to ask for.

That is the love we are called to both receive and give — love that doesn't keep an account of wrongs but adds the candlesticks.