“Find a place where trouble isn’t.” Aunt Em is miffed when she says something like this to Dorothy in the opening sequence of the 1939 motion picture “The Wizard of Oz.”

Dorothy walks away and says to her pup, “Do you suppose there is such a place, Toto? There must be. It’s not a place you can get to by a boat, or a train. It’s far, far away. Behind the moon, beyond the rain . . .” What happens next is quite amazing, and it was cut from the original film but reinstated. Judy Garland, Dorothy, starts singing what is viewed by many as the #1 song of the 20th Century.

Today, my favorite parts are these: “Somewhere over the rainbow way up high, there’s a land that I heard of once in a lullaby. Someday I’ll wish upon a star and wake up where the clouds are far behind me. Where troubles melt like lemon drops . . .” And, she did wake up in that far-away land. Down the yellow brick road, Dorothy walked, skipped and sang with the Tin Man, Scarecrow and Lion in the land of lemon drops to find that troubles there were there. She worked hard and helped her friends, and after all discovered that the answer was always with her, the ruby red slippers. “Wish for what you want, you can make it happen,” that kindly Wizard said, in my paraphrase. And, she did and off she went.

“Toto, we’re home. Home! And this is my room, and you’re all here. And I’m not gonna leave here ever, ever again, because I love you all, and – oh, Auntie Em – there’s no place like home!”

There’s no place like home. With all its own troubles, there’s still no place like home. Sometimes, we need to be lifted way up like Dorothy into the clouds so high to see that there is no land that’s trouble free, and where we need to be is where we are at. I wish with all my heart there were no troubles. I wish there was somewhere over the rainbow that’s trouble free, but I know while we’re here there isn’t that. My comfort is Dorothy finding the answer right there on her own two feet. Her feet and her persistence led Dorothy to find courage, answers and heart for those she loved and for herself. Her efforts led her home.

Somewhere over the rainbow is, I think, right here at home.

May you find courage, answers and heart.

There’s no place like home.

Grandpa Jim