May 20, 2024
Eliza Doolittle Day
Guttersnipe to Royalty
If I had to pick one character that has impacted my thoughts and behaviors, it would be Eliza Doolittle.
Like Eliza, I found myself in the pit of life, struggling to find out who I was and what I wanted to be. This world can be a cold crewel place, and sometimes it’s the people who care for us that shape us by our thoughts, actions and reactions. Reactions are the knee jerk responses that surface in our lives, we don’t know why we do it, like Paul, in his letter to the Romans: “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”
I often tell those around me that, “Children learn what they live…” Did I learn those inappropriate behaviors, or was it a core issue?
No, I believe we are a product of our environments.
Bad company corrupts good character.
Eliza must have grown up with a distant father, who had a horrible drinking problem, he surfaces only to “keep her in line” or to require money, because she owes it to him, after all he was there when she was created.
She lived and behaved as a guttersnipe, because she wasn’t taught any different. There is no hope, just scratching at the dirt trying to make a living.
Change starts when Eliza is taken on as a bet between Henry Higgins, a self-confirmed bachelor, looks on her with disdain and finds her fit for her place in society, all the while Colonel Pickering, a dashing debonair man who has been well traveled and behaves in an appropriate manor towards Eliza, and even dares to call her a lady!
In the midst of her tutelage Eliza finds herself exasperated at Henry Higgins!
“Just you wait”
Just you wait, ‘enry ‘iggins, just you wait
You’ll be sorry but your tears ‘ll be to late
You’ll be broke and I’ll have money
Will I help you? Don’t be funny
Just you wait, ‘enry ‘iggins, just you wait
Just you wait, ‘enry ‘iggins, till you’re sick
And you scream to fetch a doctor double quick
I’ll be off a second later and go straight to the theater
Oh ho ho, ‘enry ‘iggins, just you wait
Ooo ‘enry ‘igginsJust you wait until we’re swimmin’ in the sea
Ooo ‘enry ‘igginsAnd you get a cramp a little ways from me
When you yell you’re going to drown
I’ll get dressed and go to town
Oh ho ho, ‘enry ‘iggins, oh ho ho, ‘enry ‘iggins, just you wait
One day I’ll be famous, I’ll be proper and prim
Go to St. James so often I will call it St. Jim
One evening the king will say, “Oh, Liza, old thing
I want all of England your praises to sing
“Next week on the twentieth of May
I proclaim Liza Doolittle day
All the people will celebrate the glory of you
And whatever you wish and want I gladly will do”
Oh thanks a lot” king says I, in a manner well bred
But all I want is ‘enry ‘iggins ‘ead
“Done,” says the king with a stroke
Guard, run and bring in the bloke
Then they’ll march you, ‘enry ‘iggins to the wall
And the king will tell me, “Liza, sound the call”
As they raise their rifles higher, I’ll shout”Ready, aim, fire”
Oh ho ho, ‘enry ‘iggins down you’ll go
‘Enry ‘iggins, just you wait
And then there’s Colonel Pickering, who talks to Eliza as if she were indeed a lady. He treats her as a lady and is very generous with complements and fine clothing to wear. But it’s not so much about the outside with the Colonel, it’s the inside, Eliza’s heart that he’s speaking to.
That’s what our Heavenly Father does, he looks at us from the inside, and sees what it was that we were meant to be. Through all the trials, the testing, the persecutions, the hurt and the anger our Abba Father knows us, He has chosen each of us for a specific purpose and a plan. When we are not walking His way, we are lead astray, we have lost sight of what is good, and kind, and loving. We lose our hope and our purpose.
The Colonel is trying to get Eliza to see herself through his eyes.
Henry Higgins sees Eliza as the world sees us, a little less than, not quite enough to measure up, in this world we will always fall short, always.
Professor Higgins will always treat Eliza less than.
Just as Colonel Pickering will always treat Eliza as a lady.
But I have great news for all those Eliza’s out there!
Your Abba Father sees you as His princess, His delightfully chosen one, His love for you is without end. He is calling you to look at yourself through His eyes. You are so precious, so loved, so wanted, so enough-you do not have to strive for His affections, you just have to surrender to the truth.
You are a child of the Most High King, a Princess in a royal Kingdom, not of this world, but in the heavenly realms.
Look to the cross, to Jesus, the Christ, who surrendered His life to purchase your ransom from sin and death, forever to be in eternity with Him and The Father.
Truely I say to you, I am no longer a guttersnipe, but am a resident of the Eternal Kingdom
Very nice parallel. God is so kind and patient. He wants all of us to come to Him.
The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker. The killer, the crackhead, the con.
The CEO, CFO, CTO. Whatever, doesn’t matter. He will make children of the King of us all if we choose Him and let Him.