Last week I was in Stratford, Ontario, not far from Toronto, in Canada.
During the time I was there I had the opportunity to go to the theater to see the “Man of La Mancha”.
The play shows Cervantes’ character “Don Quixote de La Mancha” interacting with a group of thieves, prostitutes and murderers in a makeshift prison-village, during the Spanish Inquisition.
The play is full of madness, mixed with idealism and optimism.
Among the characters there is “Aldonza”, known by the others for her past as a prostitute, and still treated by them as such.
But Don Quixote calls her “Dulcinea” as he treats her like a lady, protects her, and shows her a very respectful love.
Puzzled with the unexpected attention, she resists his love, repeating that she is not worth it.
Upon his persistency, she comes to a point when she approaches him and says “Look at me! What do you see?”
After staring at her for a few seconds, he says “Beauty. Perfection.”
When I heard him saying that I thought “that’s exactly how God sees us when we have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus”.
Despite of our past, despite of our mistakes, we were made clean. Justified.
God sees Jesus’ perfection in us, and loves us deeply.
So we can have a relationship with him, and a victorious life, knowing we are loved by Him!
Romans 8: 37-39 seems a great closing for those thoughts:
“In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life,
neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future,
nor any powers,
neither height nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord”.
