Susan Boyle: Foretaste of Heaven in an Odd Setting

Susan Boyle is a 47 year old spinster from a small town in Scotland who has never been on a date and is currently out of work. She was bullied as a child and had a learning disability. She still lives in the council house she shared with her parents, whom she looked after until they died. She sings in her church and has always wanted to perform in front of a large audience. She never had the opportunity until she appeared on the talent show "Britain's Got Talent."

Everything about modern mass media and mass culture was, for one incandescent moment, turned upside down as light shone in somehow through a crack in the facade of the glamorous, the superficial and the emphasis on looks and style. Think of Britney Spears and then think the complete opposite and you've got Susan Boyle.

I can picture heaven as a succession of moments like this one in which those who were rich and famous on earth form the audience and people like Susan Boyle, who were scorned here on earth, have their true worth and value drawn out for all to see by her Creator who knew all along. Susan came, looked frumpy, and conquered. Boy did she conquer! See if you can watch her sing "I Had a Dream" from Les Miserables without losing it. I've posted the lyrics below.

I dreamed a dream in time gone by
When hope was high
And life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving
Then I was young and unafraid
And dreams were made and used and wasted
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung, no wine untasted

But the tigers come at night
With their voices soft as thunder
As they tear your hope apart
And they turn your dream to shame

And still I dream he'll come to me
That we will live the years together
But there are dreams that cannot be
And there are storms we cannot weather

I had a dream my life would be
So different from this hell I'm living
So different now from what it seemed
Now life has killed the dream I dreamed.

Jean Valjean was 47 when he was released from prison and the suffering he had endured up to that point in his life prepared him for the work he was to accomplish during the next twenty years. How will God use this remarkable woman in the next twenty years?