Okay, so maybe there wasn’t any rock’n’roll. But D wrote some groovin’ tunes, and I think that counts.
I’ve been thinking about the rescue/redemption theme of Moulin Rouge since we picked it to be the next video for our group weeks ago. (Now that we’ve done it, the actual next one is The Philadelphia Story.) I love the “freedom, beauty, truth and love” theme of Moulin Rouge, because I so believe in those things – I believe they exist, and they’re God. God is love, we always say. So God is freedom. God is truth. God is beauty. And I love the freedom, beauty and truth of knowing that God is a God who rescues us, no matter how deep and dirty the pit, and he redeems us, no matter what the cost.
It’s like the story of D.
D wasn’t a flashy entertainer like Satine, but D was a whore & an adulterer. And did I mention a liar and murderer? D was pretty down & dirty. I think the list of lovers ran well into the hundreds … and the marriages were countless. D was a bad parent, too, and the mistakes D made were enormous. Yet God never gave up on D. In fact, throughout D’s life, though D’s relationship with God ebbed like the tide, God held D up as an example – a good example – of a person who loved God wholeheartedly, and who God loved unreservedly.
It’s not just that God loves a rescue story ... he loves a comeback too. Like Satine, like D, after we’ve been rescued, sometimes we still fall pretty hard, right back into the muck we got out of. Sometimes we do the wrong things for the right reasons, like Satine, and sometimes we forget what’s right and wrong, like D. The great thing about God is that he’s the God of second chances.
God knew the kind of person D was, and the kind of mistakes D would continue to make throughout life … and none of it gave God pause. This is what D wrote about their relationship: “God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever. O Lord, you are so good, so ready to forgive, so full of unfailing love for all who ask your aid.”*
And you know, God himself said that D – King David – was a man after God’s own heart. Not because he was a murdering whore, and not exactly in spite of it, but through it. Whatever his ups and downs, David was repentant. I wish he hadn’t made his mistakes to begin with, but he did. And God honored him because when he messed up, he admitted it, repented, and made things as right as he could. While David changed, God’s love for him never did. What do you do with that? When in your life have you needed that kind of love?
*Psalm 73:26 & 86:5
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