The qualities we most desire to express in our lives are very often those that we already have within us but have not yet realized. Sometimes it takes a particular life experience to dig deep, pray for help and find our internal storehouse of strength.
One of my all-time favorite movies is "The Wizard Of Oz". In fact, I had the entire collection of Frank L. Baum books about the Land of Oz as a child and have watched the movie countless times throughout my life. Dorothy's journey through Oz, her battles with evil and struggles with her own fears as well as the friends she finds along the way to help her in her quest to return home, all seem to be a metaphor for our own personal journeys here on earth.
At the beginning of the movie, Dorothy, feeling trapped and unhappy with her life, sings the well-loved song, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", yearning for freedom and adventure:
"Somewhere over the rainbow... way up high
There's a land that i heard of once in a lullaby.
Somewhere over the rainbow... skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true..."
She gets the adventure she dreamed of as a result of a head injury suffered during a tornado, after which she has an amazing dream, which becomes a personal quest to find "home". She meets colorful characters and experiences all kinds of amazing, beautiful and dangerous things on her journey to find the mysterious "Wizard of Oz, who she believes can show her the way home. In the end, Dorothy, the scarecrow, the tin man and the cowardly lion all find, when they pull back the curtain, that the seemingly menacing, intimidating, all powerful "Oz" is really a kindhearted gentleman who helps each one of them to realize that what they most desired to be, they already were. They just had to open their eyes and hearts to find their gifts within.
There is just so much to unpack in this story: Dorothy's adventures in Oz as a metaphor for life; The Wizard as a metaphor for God; the personal quest to find home as a metaphor for our own personal search for life's purpose and "our own heart's desire".
Everything we need in life is revealed as we trust God and ourselves. The gifts within us are greater than we can possibly imagine, but we have to find them for ourselves as we faithfully journey along life's sometimes perilous path.
As Glinda the Good Witch assures Dorothy in the end: " You've always had the power, my dear, you just had to learn it for yourself ".
Lovely!
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