Prayer

One of my favorite Disney movies of all time is The Hunchback of Notre Dame. It is on the darker end for a Disney movie and it casts an interesting view on God. Despite that, I love the message; even the broken can be heroes.

My favorite song in this movie is Good Help The Outcasts. Esmeralda has claimed sanctuary in the church as a way to avoid capture, imprisonment, torture, and death but mainly, Frollo (as I said, dark movie). Her heart is breaking because of the prejudice that not only she is facing but her people, the Gypsies, are as well. She calls herself and her people Outcasts because that's exactly the way they're being treated. Despite all this, she prays.

I don't know if You can hear me
Or if You're even there
I don't know if You would listen
To a gypsy's prayer
Yes, I know I'm just an outcast
I shouldn't speak to you
Still I see Your face and wonder
Were You once an outcast too?

Her prayer makes me sad. I mean, she even feels distant from God. That was how that society was though. That was all Esmeralda knew. What I do love though is the last line. Were you once an outcast too? No matter who you are or where you came from, everyone has rough patches. We've all felt distant from God at some point or another. Jesus was, in my opinion, probably the human who suffered the most. Think about it; though he shared his father's love for the world, it can't have been easy to leave the most perfect place to come to a world that's in ruins, that's hurting, only to have to die completely alone with the weight of all the sin of the world on his shoulders. He was more than just an outcast, he was more alone than anyone on this Earth ever has been.

We are not distant from God. He always answers our prayers, in some way or another. Esmeralda found true love, Frollo died, and Quasimodo found acceptance. They all found their happily ever after (well, not Frollo but he really was a bad guy).

God knows the deepest parts of us, birth to death. He knows how we feel, what we've gone through. He sees all of it and the best part is that He does listen when we pray and anyone can come to Him in any circumstance.