Weren't you dismayed the first time you ever saw the "Wizard of Oz" and discovered that there was no real magic, no real wizard? Last night I was discussing college with some parents whose children are headed off to college in just a few weeks (including one of our own!). As I listened to their explanations of why they were paying their children's way, what loans and debts they were incurring to send their children off to "gain wisdom" I thought of the Wizard of Oz.
These parents think they are going into debt and taking out loans to send their children off to some magical place where they will be instilled with knowledge and wisdom that will ensure that they will become successful, happy, and most importantly (to them), wealthy adults. I felt like the one who had seen the end of the movie and knew better but didn't know quite how to get through the screen to tell "Dorothy and her friends" that it was all a bad dream and there was "no place like home". Of course I'm not saying all college is bad - our third one will be the third to enter the world of college this fall and if it was such a terrible place we certainly wouldn't allow her to work her fingers to the bone to pay for it (yes, SHE is paying, not us). But to think that it is a magical place is so wrong. We must prepare our children to enter college prepared for doing battle, prepared for standing against the crowd, prepared to think for themselves no matter what grade an "I will brainwash you" professor gives you for challenging his worldview. It is so different when the young adults enter knowing they are going to a battleground, not a playground. It is so different when they shine like lights in darkness and have loving arms to put around people who really mess up their lives in that playground. There are wonderful young adults who already have pulled back the curtain and seen the wizard wasn't real but who live in Oz to help others and be the hope that shines through the darkest storm, who help pick up the pieces after the tornado of broken promises, who already know that there is no place like home, and their home is not on this earth. May we encourage and pray for those bright young souls and the ones they will touch every day.
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