There’s No Place Like Home
When my son, Travis, was a toddler, he LOVED the Wizard of Oz. He would watch the movie over and over and never tire of it. I remember as a kid, I too loved the movie, but I could only watch it when it played on TV once a year. There was a turning point scene for Dorothy when she and her friends came to present the broom of the wicked witch to the wizard, as demanded. Toto, being an inquisitive little dog, pulled back the curtain that concealed the old man pretending to be the great and powerful Oz. Even with all his bells and whistles, he turned out to be just a man with no special powers to grant Dorothy her wish.
I bring up the movie because I sometimes think that people who aren’t believers picture God like this…a higher power who is ‘the man upstairs’ manipulating our lives like puppets. But that is not the God I serve. My God is a God of mercy and grace, forgiveness and faithfulness and lots of second chances. Does He convict me…yes, but not like a judge convicting a felon. He convicts me to open my eyes to things that are displeasing to Him. He allows me to suffer so that I learn to lean on His strength, not my own. But until you accept Jesus, these concepts are foreign and hard to grasp.
There is a musical group, Unspoken, who sings a song, “Reason.” One of the verses says, “If we could pull back the curtain of Heaven, we would see His hand on everything.” I can honestly say that the image of Oz pushing all the buttons and pulling all the levers came to my mind, but that is where the similarity stopped. God DOES have His hands on everything; the difference is, He IS the Great Almighty, able to do unimaginable things. He is the King, who sits on the throne of heaven, who’s working out my life, your life, and the lives of all His children everywhere. When asked, He would give anyone wisdom, a clean heart, or the courage to endure trials.
The next line in the song says, “Every hour, every minute, every second, He's always been in it.” There’s another song that tells us the even when you can’t feel it or see it, He’s working and He never stops. Psalm 121:3 “He will not let your foot slip-- He who watches over you will not slumber.” His hand IS on everything, all the time, and for that, we should all be grateful. When left alone, we tend to mess up our lives, but knowing that He is always directing my path, protecting me and working things out on my behalf, even if I can’t see it at the moment, brings me great comfort.
All Dorothy wanted was to get back home to Kansas. After finding out the wizard could not help her, Glenda, the good witch, told Dorothy that the ability to get home was already inside of her. God, in all His wisdom and glory, designed us perfectly. There is a GPS-like beacon inside each one of us…a light that will guide us home to the Father; all we have to do is ask and believe. Truly, there’s no place like home.