GLINDA- It’s all right. You can get up, she’s gone.
The Munchkins all rise and start to move toward Glinda and Dorothy as Glinda speaks to them.
GLINDA- It’s all right. You can all get up.
GLINDA- Pooh! What a smell of sulphur! I’m afraid you’ve made rather a bad enemy of the Wicked Witch of the West. The sooner you get out of Oz altogether, the safer you’ll sleep, my dear.
DOROTHY- Oh, I’d give anything to get out of Oz altogether! But which is the way back to Kansas? I can’t go the way I came.
GLINDA- No, that’s true. The only person who might know would be the great and wonderful Wizard of Oz himself!
DOROTHY- The Wizard of Oz? Is he good or is he wicked?
GLINDA- Oh, very good, but very mysterious. He lives in the Emerald City, and that’s a long journey from here. Did you bring your broomstick with you?
DOROTHY- No, I’m afraid I didn’t.
GLINDA- Well, then, you’ll have to walk. The Munchkins will see you safely to the border of Munchkinland. And remember, never let those ruby slippers off your feet for a moment, or you will be at the mercy of the Wicked Witch of the West.
DOROTHY- But, how do I start for Emerald City?
GLINDA- It’s always best to start at the beginning, and all you do is follow the Yellow Brick Road.
DOROTHY- But… what happens if I…?
GLINDA- Just follow the Yellow Brick Road.
And the camera pans down to Dorothy’s ruby red clad feet to show us that she is standing at the point of the spiral shaped beginnings of the Yellow Brick Road inlaid within the midst of Munchkinland. All the Munchkins gather around Dorothy as they point the way to the Emerald City and to the Great and Mysterious Oz, and her only hope of getting home. “Just follow the Yellow Brick Road…”
We all have buried deep inside of us a desperate desire to go home.
Somehow, we know innately that this world is not our home, we ultimately do not belong here and we feel uneasy and discontent here no matter how appealing it may be at times. Yes, we may have love and beauty and creature comforts in this world, but something of a Greater Love draws us, Something or Someone more beautiful than this existence can offer. Sometimes it’s hard to explain, we can’t seem to put into words the dissatisfaction and longing we feel so deeply in our hearts.
Home.
Home to the love that loves us so completely in spite of our flaws. Home to the love that shelters us in the worst of storms. Home to the One who sits by our side and patiently waits for us to awaken from the illusion of our dreamy false realities. Home to the arms that will encompass us in a perfect and consuming Peace; safe and warm and satisfied.
But how do we get there from here? We can’t go the way we came.
And it’s a long journey from here.
Where do we find our Yellow Brick Road?
Which way to the Great and Powerful, this Mysterious “Oz”, who is our only hope of ever finding home?
The deeply ingrained longing for “home” is real. It is a desire that transcends us; in other words, it doesn’t originate with us. That desire was planted there by our Creator. It is a desire for Him and will only be satisfied in Him. The problem we face is that so much of the world today not only doesn’t know Him, but they do not even entertain the possibility for His existence. The world tells them that there is no Emerald City and there is no Great and Powerful Oz. You can follow the Yellow Brick Road all you want, but it leads to nowhere. What a hopeless state they are in! It’s no wonder that so many people are committing suicide! It’s no wonder so many today are escaping their realities with drugs and alcohol, or with pornography or video games or online shopping. They know the craving is real. They just have no idea how to satisfy it. No matter with what they try or how much or how often, still they find themselves empty; hungry for a home they don’t know how to find.
But friends, I am here to tell you there is a Way. There is a hope. There is One who made a way for us to satisfy the desire for Home, Who indeed IS our Home. And there is a Road that leads us there.
It’s simple to find. And you do not have to start at the beginning. You can start from wherever you are!
Your journey Home begins with your first believing in the Truth that there is a God who made you, who formed you intentionally and who desires to be known by you. In this way, God our Creator is not like the Wizard of Oz who was “mysterious” so as only to hide the fact that he was not who he portrayed himself to be. The Wizard of Oz was, in the end, just a man like everyone else. Our God is not at all like anyone or anything else. He is Who and What His word says He is and through His word He is revealed and knowable. John 1:1-5, 9-13.
And that Word became a man, but not a man like anyone else (John 1:14). He was also God revealed to us in human form, clothed in flesh and blood, entering time and space in order to bridge the great divide that separated us from Him. That great divide is the sin that we are born into, sin that we commit and sin that we cannot escape or deliver ourselves from. Our sin is what separates us from our Home. But the Word that became a man -Jesus Christ, came to pay the penalty for our sin, to die in our place, to satisfy the righteous requirements of God in our stead. Because He did what we could never do for ourselves, we now have access to the “Great and Powerful” God, the only hope of ever satisfying the deepest longing and hunger of our souls.
“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way where I am going.” Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?”
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. John 14:1-6.
Our hearts long to be at home with our Father. The only way to get home is through Jesus, who indeed IS the Way. When we trust in the work He did for us on the Cross by shedding His perfect, sinless blood, our faith in that work gives us access to the Father. The Holy Spirit comes like a dove and lights upon us and sinks down within us and takes up residence in our spirit. He unites with our spirit in a way that resembles a marriage, we are made one with each other. When God looks upon us, He sees that union and the holiness that is bestowed upon us through the Spirit. We come to KNOW Him.
In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” John 14:20-21
It is no longer us He sees, but the Spirit of Christ within us. Our identity has changed. We are made a new creation.
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God,who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 2Corinthians 5:17-19
It really is a marvelous mystery! And one you do not have to fully understand to reap the benefits from. You only have to trust that it is true and accept that truth within your heart. God performs the rest.
The next step in the process of going home is to follow. Just as Dorothy had to follow the Yellow Brick Road, we have to follow Jesus. Following Jesus is in every sense following the “Glory Road”. Following Jesus and His commands keeps us in the center of Gods perfect will for our lives. No matter where you are in this world; in a field of poisonous poppies or in the middle of the haunted forest surrounded by flying monkeys, if you are on the Glory Road you are going the right way. God’s eyes are on you.
Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.
“These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.
Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.” John 14:23-27
Following Christ means reading His word. Following Christ means surrendering your will to His. Following Christ means to live according to the Spirit and not according to our own sinful desires. And even that is something we cannot do in and of ourselves, but only as the Holy Spirit empowers us to do it. Praise God that He has provided every need we have.
If we do these things according to the prescribed plan of God, we will find our way home. In fact, we will find that we are already home in Him. We will find that our desperate, unexplained longings are satisfied in Him. The things of the world will, over time, fade away. And we will rest in the hope that we will experience an eternity with the God of all creation, Who formed us for His good pleasure, to enjoy the riches of His Grace and Mercies, living in the Presence of His Glory forever!
Way better than Kansas!