We will come to answer this question in a bit, but first, follow along with me into some mental scenery. As the second book of Les Misérables1 draws to a close that magnificent scene between the bishop, the gendarmes, and the silverware-stealing Jean Valjean came to a head. The bishop told these policemen that Jean Valjean had not stolen, but been given the items, and inexplicably had left the more valuable candlesticks behind. The bishop was lying, the police were doubting and Jean Valjean was breaking. That 12th chapter closed and off went Jean Valjean into the 13th.
Perhaps you never knew or have forgotten Petit Gervais, that happy-go-lucky chimneysweep of a boy who came across Jean Valjean. Petit was playing a throw-and-catch game with his coins, but one dropped and rolled toward Valjean who promptly stamped his foot on top of it. The boy begged Valjean and struggled to pull his powerful leg off that coin. Valjean did not relent and Petit Gervais finally ran off crying and without the 40 sous piece. [Read more…] about Ephesians 1:8-10>>Why all this grace?