Ch. 21: Focused on the Family of God

the final chapter

At the end of the 1939 movie, The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion return to the Wizard, having journeyed to meet him before, only to be told to leave. The Wizard asks them to jump through the hoops he requires before considering granting their desires: Dorothy, to go home; Scarecrow, to gain intelligence; Tin Man, to have a heart; and Cowardly Lion, to have courage.

As Dorothy, her dog Toto, and her companions approach the Wizard a second time, he speaks loudly, terrifyingly, projecting himself as larger than life. The Tin Man and Scarecrow cower, and Cowardly Lion trembles and falls to the floor. Amidst their fear, Dorothy seems to be the only one indignant enough to fight not only for what she wants, but also to fight on her friends’ behalf.

As Dorothy works up the courage to speak, Toto runs toward the Wizard’s voice, pulling the bottom edge of the curtain back with his teeth. All at once, the truth is revealed. There is no Wizard; there’s only a man behind the curtain, pushing buttons, shifting levers, pulling strings.

“Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain,” the man projects in his most wizardly voice.

But by now, the charade is up. Dorothy has seen too much, been asked too much, lived through too much, to be fooled.

“You’re a very bad man,” Dorothy accuses.

But the man, diffusing Dorothy’s anger, argues that he is actually a very good man—if just a very bad wizard. He explains that he was just trying to make the best of a dismal situation he’d been thrust into, a Kansas tornado, long before Dorothy got swept up in it, too.

Before Dorothy and her friends have time to think, the man pulls out one last bag of tricks, granting to Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion physical symbols of their desires. But by the time he gets to Dorothy, surprise, surprise, his bag is empty. Dorothy is extraordinarily disappointed. Her friends feel sad and helpless for her and offer their best consolations.

“Look!” Scarecrow says hopefully when he spots Glinda the Good Witch descending from the northern sky.

“Oh, will you help me? Can you help me?” Dorothy begs Glinda.

To Dorothy’s surprise, Glinda tells her that she does not need anything from her or the man playing the Wizard—and she never has. She needs only the power of the ruby red slippers which are already on her feet to take her where she desires to go.

“But why didn’t you tell her before?” Scarecrow bellows on Dorothy’s behalf.

As if knowing something the others don’t, Glinda unflinchingly replies: “Because she wouldn’t have believed me. She had to learn it for herself.”