In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Dorothy the Scarecrow the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion return to Oz with the broomstick that empowered the Wicked Witch of the West The Wizard had promised in return for the broomstick that he would give the four friends their deepest desires a ride home for Dorothy a brain for the Scarecrow a heart for the Tin Man and courage for the Cowardly Lion But the Wizard stalls and tells them to come back the next day While they plead with the Wizard not to send them away Dorothy rsquo s dog Toto [... more]

For some months now I rsquo ve been corresponding with a young man who is thinking deeply about faith On one occasion he wrote ldquo We rsquo re no more than teeny tiny infinitesimal blips on the timeline of history Do we matter rdquo nbsp Moses Israel rsquo s prophet would agree ldquo Our days quickly pass and we fly away rdquo Psalm The brevity of life can worry us and cause us to wonder if we matter nbsp We do We matter because we are deeply eternally loved by the God who made us In this poem Moses prays [... more]