Dorothy, Kansas, Timelessness...

Watched the Wizard of Oz with my kids the other day. Classic holiday viewing. I couldn't help but think back to watching the same movie with my mom and dad when I was a kid. Then, I thought about the fact that my mom sat with my grandmother and watched the same movie when she was young. Then, I checked the date of production and was blown away to see that the film was released in 1939. For those of you keeping track, that's 70 years ago! Before the Second World War, before the Cold War, before the Holocaust was public knowledge, before the tumultuous 60's, before the explosion of Rock and Roll, before the Cuban Missile Crisis, before so much of what has marked us. Fresh on the heels of Depression-era catastrophe this movie was released. Then I began to ponder all who had seen that movie in the theaters. Men and women who, like my grandparents, visited the local theaters in the late 30's as teenagers and enjoyed the very first color pictures in moving film. The men who sacrificed their lives on D-Day and the resulting conflicts in Europe, Asia, and Africa. I wonder how many of them had watched Dorothy's trek through Oz, nestled in next to their girlfriends in their hometown theater. And then I wondered how many more years families, like mine, would snuggle up on a couch during the holiday season in their pajamas and for, a couple of hours, be caught up in a classic story, journeying down the Yellow Brick Road with Dorothy and her rag-tag band of companions. How many more little girls will dream of going "Somewhere Over the Rainbow?"

Then my mind began to drift again - this time away from Kansas and Oz and the Emerald City; away from Dorothy and her rambling band of ineptitude to other far away places and timeless stories - tales of Creation out of nothing, of a Good garden, a beautiful Paradise, a tempting and crafty nemesis in the form of a serpent, of a Fall, a Curse, and glorious restoration. Timeless stories of another rag-tag band of inept pilgrims and strangers - men like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (all of whom turned their courses and followed God), wandering through strange places, growing and developing along the way. I thought of heroes of a bygone era - men like Noah, Moses, Joshua, Caleb, women like Ruth, Naomi, Esther. I was caught up in stories of roving Apostles and missionaries, carrying the glorious gospel of Jesus to the ends of the earth, facing persecution, trial, beatings, death; these men were those whom the author of Hebrews described as men of whom the world was not worthy. How many countless thousands, millions have enjoyed these tales together, drawing encouragement and hope for their pilgrim-esque, wandering lives? How many of past eras have also enjoyed fellowship with God through His Son, having their paths lit by His word? How timeless is this faith that we are privileged to be caught up in. Truly, there is more to this family of God, than my mere "three score and ten" years allotted to me! Truly, we are part of something much larger than we can ever imagine. Truly, we are not in Kansas anymore. May we today draw encouragement and confidence from the legacies, heritage, and example of our "cloud of witnesses." May we be reminded that, although our lives feel somewhat unstable at times, we are tethered to a timeless community of faith in the Risen Son of God, to men and women who for all time have been recklessly wandering along their own "yellow brick road," as pilgrims and strangers in their worlds, and we are rooted and grounded in an Eternal God.

All that from a pretty farm girl, and her little dog, too.