We're Not In Kansas Anymore

I love the classic book The Wizard of Oz written by L. Frank Baum.  He captured the longing within us to be set free from all of life’s problems.  Many people believe he wrote the book as a Parable on Populism, to explain the political situation at the time of its writing.  Others think it is a simple story of everyone’s rite of passage from childhood to adulthood. I can see both ideas but I have my own take on the story.

Let’s face it, the meat of the tale is a broken relationship.  Dorothy is mad that Auntie Em is not listening to her problems.  She is having issues outside her home that are threatening her peaceful life.  To top it off she feels misunderstood, taken for granted, and ignored by her family.  She starts to imagine a place “Over the Rainbow” where her life will be better and she will have no more troubles.  Now here comes Mrs. Gulch, a nasty neighbor who threatens to dispose of her dog Toto, the center of the young girls’ universe. This act of hatefulness is the catalyst that sets Dorothy on an emotion cyclone. Our feelings, like a twister, wreak havoc in our mind, heart, and actions.

We have all been there. Someone close to us has stopped meeting our needs. We feel angry, disappointed, or hurt, by our spouse, friend, or family member. If we let our thoughts brew, our feelings come together like the perfect storm.  Sometimes we are tempted to fix the problem by running away emotionally or by abandoning the troublesome relationship altogether.  However, here’s the catch. Like Dorothy who leaves her present situation for something that looks better, she soon finds out the “Yellow Brick Road” leads her further away from the peace she was seeking.

As the story unfolds, it runs parallel to real life.  Dorothy finds herself in a place where she has to confront the issue she tried to escape.  The Wicked Witch, her problem, is chasing her in a new form.  What she finds inside the Emerald City is a hoax.  The Wizard can’t fix her problems, she has to take responsibility for her new life in Oz, which comes with a whole new set of problems.  Remember the flying monkeys!

My point is, we all make good and bad choices in life. Like Dorothy, no mater how bad we have messed up, or how far away we find ourselves, there is a way home. The Parable of the Prodigal Son also tells the story of a broken relationship.  A young man leaves his fathers house to spread his wings and find his own place in life. After spending all his money on thing that don’t satisfy he returns home, broken and defeated.  Thankfully, we have a heavenly father who is waiting for us to realize “There is no place like home.”  We don’t need to click our heels together, we have a free gift.  It’s called grace.



Check out this Amazing Grace Youtube video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3SQlTIjJ2U&feature=related