Something I've been working on. I'd love some feedback. Not part of the actual book but I'm thinking of maybe an appendix of stray essays, possibly for the backof the book if anyone has anything that may be of interest.

The Fruit of the Spirit as Exhibited in Dorothy

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23

In the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy can be considered an allegorical symbol of a person becoming a Christian, or follower of Jesus Christ. Her conversion/salvation came at the point when she realized that through events that were beyond her control, evil had been overcome and people had been set free from the bondage of that evil. At that point of conversion she was given direction and protection. She also put off her old clothes to put on clean clothes and took food for nourishment. She ate bread and also fruit that she found readily available at the point of her conversion and also packed some for her journey. This fruit that she discovered as part of this new life is the focus of this work.

The verse above outlines in detail the fruit that the Spirit bears out in Christians at their point of conversion. It could potentially be subdued or denied entirely but it will be present in every true follower. Our purpose here is to see if indeed Dorothy, the little orphan girl from Kansas, indeed exhibits these fruit as she journeys through Oz to find her way home.

Love

The first fruit we find here is love. This is not a careless or even mere friend sort of love but what the Bible refers to as ..agape.. love. Normally defined as a God kind of love, this love is of a sort that ..loves enemies.. and helps those who potentially have nothing to offer us in return. This love ..turns the other cheek.. and serves the unlovable and the dregs of society. C.S. Lewis defined this love as .... not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person's ultimate good as far as it can be obtained... This was also demonstrated by Corrie ten Boom, a holocaust survivor and Christian, who effectively forgave one of her captors face-to-face but also deep down within herself. Does Dorothy demonstrate this kind of love in the Wonderful Wizard of Oz? She surely does.

First, Dorothy demonstrates this love by her friendliness to complete strangers along the way, the most extreme arguably being the Tin Man, who was rusted in place. It..s hard to say how many people had passed his way and ignored his groans for help. Dorothy personally wanted to go home but stopped to help, not a temporal help but an ongoing help to better the Tin Man..s life. She did similar things with each of the trio she encountered along the journey. Again and again she thinks of her friends first when it was she with the initial problem, a need to get home. When the Wizard ..solves.. their problems, she is happy for them even when she knows the Wizard can..t help her.

Dorothy also shows selfless love in regards to the Wicked Witch of the West. Even when she is enslaved by the witch, while her friends have been dismembered or imprisoned, she still exhibits love in her service and even demonstrates gratefulness.

Dorothy went to work meekly, with her mind made up to work as hard as she could; for she was glad the Wicked Witch had decided not to kill her.

And she again shows love for the wicked woman when she kills the witch, reacting innocently out of anger.

..I'm very sorry, indeed,.. said Dorothy, who was truly frightened to see the Witch actually melting away like brown sugar before her very eyes.

This reminds us of the results of our loving those who try to harm us as described in the Bible. Romans 12: 17-21:

Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, ..Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,.. says the Lord. ..But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head... Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

This Biblical response to evil can only come from this ..agape.. love we are looking at. We see in this case with Dorothy and the Witch that evil was indeed overcome by good, not through any real effort on Dorothy..s part. She had no intentions of even harming the witch but instead chose to serve her willingly. The witch..s demise came from a simple burst of anger when the witch stole her shoe and Dorothy was as shocked as anyone at what came of it. Ultimately God would have His revenge for Dorothy.

Joy

The passion or emotion excited by the acquisition or expectation of good; pleasurable feelings or emotions caused by success, good fortune, and the like, or by a rational prospect of possessing what we love or desire; gladness; exhilaration of spirits; delight.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.

This is a Webster definition and directly applies to the Biblical view of joy and why we have joy. We have ..aquired.. and ..expect.. good. God..s grace proves it. Grace is unmerited favor. We don..t deserve it, so when we get it, the result is joy. The word for ..joy.. in the Greek ..chara.. comes from the same root word as ..grace...

Dorothy received grace at her conversion. She moved from darkness to light, literally and spiritually. As she heads out on her journey to find the Wizard, she is expecting good things to happen and shares her joy with everyone she encounters. From Boq to Glinda, her joy is infectious. Even when times seem dark, the light shines through.

Peace

The tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and content with its earthly lot, of whatsoever sort that is.
Thayer and Smith..s Bible Dictionary

Peace is something that seems hard to come by in today..s world but in relation to this definition we can see its possibilities. Dorothy was suddenly content with her ..earthly lot.. at her point of salvation but had to find her way back home to enjoy it. Speaking about home to the Scarecrow, she said:

..No matter how dreary and gray our homes are, we people of flesh and blood would rather live there than in any other country, be it ever so beautiful. There is no place like home...

Before the tornado and her leaving Kansas for Oz, she may not have thought life was so wonderful, but now in the light of all that happened, Dorothy is tranquil. Again, she passes this fruit to others. Even when the Wizard really doesn..t give her friends their heart..s desires, they are content anyway. They accept their lot in life and flourish in regards to it.

Patience

Some synonyms for patience could be endurance, constancy, steadfastness, and perseverance. Dorothy is certainly an example of these. Initially heading out alone except for Toto, her dog, and continuing through the many people and hardships she would face. Even her patience when the Wizard would make her wait for 3 full days until each of her friends would have their audience with him and again when the Wizard had her wait another 3 days after the Wicked Witch was killed and 3 more days to tell her his ..plan.. to get her back to Kansas. All told, Dorothy spent about 40 days in Oz and as much as she desired to get back home, she endured and was patient with her friends and all she encountered. She certainly demonstrated what 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 describes about love:

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

This passage also shows how these fruit overlap and interrelate as it covers most of what we have already looked at and will be looking at.

Kindness & Goodness

From the things we have already seen Dorothy demonstrate, she is nothing if not kind. This kindness entails a moral goodness and integrity. Dorothy is no innocent, none of us are. She makes mistakes but has an integrity that draws people into relationship with her. Even when the Wizard is discovered to be a ..Humbug.. she is gracious and kind. She is disappointed but understanding, always hopeful. She goes out of her way to serve others, even when they abuse her. At her heart she is good and that goodness wins out every time.

In Romans 7:19, Paul laments that his flesh is a hindrance to his doing good. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. We, in ourselves don..t have the potential to do good, but God..s Spirit does good through us as part of this fruit we are looking at. In the same passage that introduces the fruit of the Spirit we see: If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. It seems from Dorothy..s actions that she is walking by the Spirit, not in her own desires.

Faithfulness

Faithfulness is the character of one who can be relied on. Can you think of anyone in your life that you can rely on? Can you be relied on? Dorothy is a great example of this fruit. The elements we have already discussed lend themselves to supporting this element. Another word that could be used here is fidelity. You will always know what side Dorothy will be on. She will not defect. She will always be a foundation her friends can depend on.

Gentleness

Again from Thayer..s and Smith..s Bible Dictionary: mildness of disposition, gentleness of spirit, meekness. We already saw that Dorothy was meek when she was in service to the Wicked Witch. We saw that her spirit was gentle as well in the helping of others and even in helping the Lion when he was in bondage to the Wicked Witch. Meekness does not mean weakness. Jesus demonstrated meekness but He was never weak. Meekness demonstrates a submission to another..s desire over one..s own. A reflection of that Spirit controlled walk we saw earlier. Personal desire is not in the picture. As has been said much lately, ..It..s not about me...

Self-Control

And finally self-control, the virtue of one who masters his desires and passions. See how these interrelate? This encompasses the other aspects of the fruit we have looked at. It seems self-control is the furthest thing from our minds today. We often let people or circumstances get the best of us. As we have already seen, once in the story, Dorothy lost her temper, but after all that had happened, we could say that was righteous anger. Her tranquility shines through in most every situation, even when it seems she will sacrifice her desires to see that her friends get their wishes. 2 Peter 1 :5-7:
Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness,
and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.

Again, we can see how these elements of the fruit intertwine and support each other along with other aspects of our Christian life. It all comes back to where we started, love. Dorothy could have been convicted based on these criteria of being a Christian because she exhibited the fruit as outlined here. She was not perfect, just as none of us are. As we saw, even Paul wasn..t. But as we journey on this road called life, as strangers in a strange land, we long for the place we can call home. The place where the fruit will flow effortlessly from our very being as we become like the one we follow after, never to fail again.