The story of "The Wizard of Oz" could have been shorter.

"After almost facing death at the hands of the Wicked Witch of the West. Glinda arrives and reveals to Dorothy that the Ruby Slippers can grant her the power to return home. After having an emotional farewell with her friends, Dorothy follows Glinda's instructions, clicking her heels three times and repeating, "There's no place like home." Dorothy awakens back in Kansas after being knocked out…" (as described on Wikipedia)

Wait a minute, all she had to do was to click her HEELS?!?!?!  This whole time, being attacked by flying monkeys, walking through the haunted forest and facing the Witch… it all could have been avoided?!?!?

How Dare Glinda withhold this information. Right..? Right…? Wrong..?

If you can remember the story, Dorothy wasn't the most respectful of children and was causing issues at home. Her dog had bitten Miss Gulch, who in turn threatened to take the farm if the dog wasn't handed over to her. 

When the dog escaped Gulch's basket and returned home, Dorothy then ran away.

There were lessoned to be learned for sure.

Glinda could have told her from the beginning that the magical slippers were her ticket back home, but there were some things that needed to be done which would allow Dorothy to understand how important her family was and how to respect those around her.

Sometimes, we search for the quick answers instead of accepting that we may need to go through the storm to see the rainbow.  Romans is a great book (in the BIBLE) to read when you feel like trying to improve as a person and believer in Christ.

When it comes to suffering  the storm of life, a couple of verses stay with me always:

Romans 5:3-5

More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Romans 8:18

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Sometimes our suffering is due to the choices we make, while other times, suffering may come from sickness, disaster or random acts of life.  Let's not forget the lessons we can learn in our suffering and help others who may be going through the same or similar situations.

There is a reason OUR story hasn't ended yet. There is a reason we haven't been instructed to click our heels and go home. Let's take the gift of today and learn, live and love.

"Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope..."
~adam