The Yellow Brick Lie

In my version of The Wizard of Oz, the Emerald City was once pure.

Before the false prophet descended from the sky in his hot-air balloon, the city rested quietly beyond dark, untouched forests. Its people lived without doubt because truth had not yet been distorted. There was no glittering road to follow, no hollow man making promises, & no reason to question what was real.

Then the Wizard touched the land.

His followers built a path of yellow gold leading directly to the Emerald City & the man they believed could reveal their futures & fulfill their deepest wishes. One by one, they surrendered their own wisdom to his promises. Those who refused to follow were driven from the road, cast into the forest, & condemned as witches.

The woman they feared as wicked was simply the only one with eyes capable of recognizing the truth.

When another stranger fell from the sky, much as the false prophet had before her, the witch tried to stop her. She feared this new visitor would bring the same destruction & further corrupt the hearts of people who had once been pure. She knew the Wizard was not what he claimed to be, & she understood what blind belief would eventually cost the Emerald City.

The dark, lifeless trees reaching across the foreground represent the constant possibility of the enemy creeping back in. Evil rarely approaches wearing armor or carrying weapons. More often, it arrives dressed like us, speaking our language & offering promises of hope, safety, & a better tomorrow.

It does not always demand to be followed. Sometimes it simply builds a beautiful road & waits for us to stop questioning where it leads.

That was the yellow brick lie.

But my version of the story ends differently.

The witch saves the Emerald City.

New growth rises from the forest & slowly overtakes the road of yellow gold. Roots break through its surface. Vines crawl across it. The forest grows so thick that the path can never be seen or found again. The Emerald City becomes safe once more, tucked beneath the shelter of the trees where evil can no longer find it.

The people ask the woman they once cast out to become their new leader, but she refuses. She disappears into the forest in search of peace, knowing that no human being was ever meant to rule over truth.

There is only one true leader: the Creator of everything that grows freely, honestly, & pure.

Stay true to the person God created you to be. Listen to the instincts He placed within you, even when the crowd insists you are wrong. Never silence that quiet warning simply because everyone else has chosen the same shining road.

Truth does not need gold beneath it to remain true.

Sometimes the person the world calls wicked is simply the only one brave enough to see the lie.

The Yellow Brick Lie is available as a fine-art print or as a photo print on canvas.

Price below is for an 16x20 inch print on canvas.