Did you know that the Tin Woodman from the Wizard of Oz was actually born with a heart? We all from the movie how Dorothy and the Scarecrow come upon him and free him from a state of permanent "rust induced immobility" by using his oil can to first free his lips and then to free his spirit. But the movie doesn't tell us is that the Tin Woodman had once been a real man, who had once been in love with a beautiful Munchkin maiden. In the original fairy tale, the author explains how it was his dream to marry his true love, once he could save enough money to build them a cottage in the woods. The Wicked Witch hated his love and so she cast spells on him that would cause him injury, so that one by one, his limbs needed to be replaced with artificial ones made of tin. At first, this seemed to be an advantage; his mechanical arms allowing him to work like a machine. With a heart of love and arms that never tired, he found himself in a "win-win" situation.
"I thought I had beaten the Wicked Witch then, and I worked harder than ever, but I little knew how cruel my enemy could be. She thought of a new way to kill my love for the Munchkin maiden and made my axe slip again, so that it cut right through my body, splitting it in two halves. Once more the tinner came to my help making me a body of tin. Fastening my tin arms, and legs, and head to it, by means of joints so that I could move around as well as ever. But alas! I now had no heart, so that I lost my love for the Munchkin girl, and did not care whether I married her or not..."
"It was a terrible thing to undergo, but during the year I stood there I had time to think that the greatest loss I had ever known was the loss of my heart. While I was in love, I was the happiest man on earth; but no one can love who has not a heart, and so I am resolved to ask Oz to give me one. If he does, I will go back to the Munchkin maiden and marry her."
"Both Dorothy and the Scarecrow had been greatly interested in the story of the Tin Woodman, and now they knew why he was so anxious to get a new heart. "All the same," said the Scarecrow, "I shall ask for brains instead of a heart; for a fool would not know what to do with a heart if he had one." "I shall take the heart," replied the Tin Woodman, "for brains do not make one happy, and happiness is the best thing in the world."
(L. Frank Baum, The Wizard of Oz)
The heart is central. Maybe God knows something we've forgotten.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.
Deuteronomy 6:5
Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.
1 Samuel 16:7
Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Luke 12:34
All a man's ways seem right to him, but the Lord weighs the heart.
Proverbs 21:2
Makes you wonder about all of the importance and relevance we place on intelligence, academic achievement, and aptitude. If we really want to take the measure of a man...maybe we shouldn't place so much importance on whats going on in his head...and take notice of whats going on 18 inches to the South.
