I have been accused of seeing God in everything. I believe all creation and all truth gives us a revelation of God. Even in great literature there are threads of the gospel of redemption. Consider the knight in the “Man of La Mancha”. I see a representation of Christ. Jesus Christ reaches down to us in our sin and sees our potential through eyes of mercy and love. He gives us a new name if we will only believe and receive him as our Lord and Savior. In the play, the harlot enters an empty stage. She has been raped – perhaps the ultimate human insult and indignity. She is devastated and hysterical. The knight sees her and calls out, “My Lady! Dulcinea!” She screams! She recoils! The same way many people reject and rebel against Christ’s call to become saints – sons and daughters of God. “Don’t call me a lady. I was born in a ditch by a mother who left me there – naked, cold, and too hungry to cry. I never blamed her. I’m sure she left hoping that I’d have the good sense to die. Look at me. I’m no lady. I’m only a kitchen slut, reeking with sweat. A strumpet men use and forget. Don’t call me Dulcinea. I am only Aldonza and I am nothing at all!” Filled with shame, guilt, and hopelessness, Aldonza runs off into the darkness. “But you are my lady, Dulcinea,” the knight calls out to the fleeing Aldonza. As the curtain rises on the last act, the knight is dying, condemned as an outcast, a crazy person. The knight’s heart is broken, like Christ’s heart was broken on the cross.

I see Jesus as the knight, the beautiful redeemer, rejected, condemned, and put to death. Christ calls to every lost soul, “But you are my child. He loves you, even if you are lost. Find and follow the call of Jesus. He will lift you up, forgive you, heal you, and give you a new name and nature. You’ll be born again” (John 3:3).

To the knight’s dying bed comes a lady – beautiful in mantilla and lace. A heavenly choir sings. She prays. He opens his eyes. “Who are you?” he asks. She rises, stands erect, and answers, “My name? My name is Dulcinea!” Aldonza has been born again. She has repented and has been transformed. (II Corinthians 5:17) The unbeliever has become a believer. The sinner has become a saint. The knight sang “The Impossible Dream”. He believed in what she could become. Aldonza finally believed it through her knight in shining armor of love. She became Dulcinea. That is the gospel.

Jesus was invited to a dinner party by a Pharisee. A woman came in with a flask of fragrant oil. She stood at Jesus’ feet weeping. She wiped his with her hair, and anointed them with the oil. (Luke 7:36-50) Jesus was criticized for allowing a sinner woman to touch him. Jesus told a powerful story of forgiveness of a great debt and concluded by saying, “Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.” Then He said, “Your sins are forgiven . . . Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”

The Lord sings the possible dream of redemption over you! Believe in him and receive Him today. It will transform your life. “For as many as received Him gave He power to become sons of God, even as many as believed on His name” (John 1:12).