Francis Phillip Wuppermann (June 1, 1890 – September 18, 1949), known professionally as Frank Morgan, was an American character actor.

Better known to us as the Frank Morgan who famously played the “Wizard” in “The Wizard of Oz” in 1939. He was hardly the star whose name’s in the title. There’s darling Judy Garland trying to find a home that she already possessed. Her traveling companions after the Kansas tornado are a brainless straw man, a heartless tin man, and a lion who believes himself to be a coward. All three gentlemen are wrong about themselves.

All the characters now living in her tornado mind but loving in her real life. Even that “wizard,” Frank Morgan, was simply a traveling magician.

Comes now to us and a supposedly consoling friend tells you in your time of tornado troubles, “God only gives you what you can handle.” What a stupid, senseless sentence of belief. Surely ends further conversation. How can you argue with God? The “Frank Morgan’s God” is conveniently hidden behind the curtain pulling levels, wheeling wheels, switching switches galore, and just for effect? Expelling smoke. (Adding smoke is always a good touch for a wizard.)

“God will only give you what you can handle.” Limitless then, by any count. Pretty safe statement but awkwardly clumsy and dangerous theology.

A wife and mother writes:

“Well-meaning friends often share this misquoted truth with me when they learn of our family’s circumstances over the past few years. Many quote it as a verse straight from the Bible.We moved cross-country with two toddlers and, within a week of moving, were surprised by the news I was pregnant with boy-girl twins. Meanwhile, my husband changed careers and had to figure out a brand-new field on his own. I gave birth to the twins only to discover shortly after holding them in my arms that one of them had Down syndrome.

Two months later, COVID-19 hit and I had to supervise my two older children doing school from home while I breastfed newborn twins. While continuing to reel from the news that we were suddenly parents of a child with special needs, we discovered the other twin had a rare disease that would require very involved at-home medical care and multiple surgeries. In between surgeries, our baby with Down syndrome began having brain-damaging seizures that required multiple hospitalizations.

All these events took place in rapid succession. The emotional toll on our family is incredible. Suffice to say, the weight on our souls has felt absolutely unbearable, and we’ve been clinging to Christ for dear life.”

Is this wife and mother subject to the smoke and Frank’s pulling away at those heavenly levels? Is this wife and mother another Job, David or Moses story? Does God give us all these troubles the same way God gives us gifts and blessings that we think about so very often?

The answer to both is “no.” Does God even have a quota in mind of how much pain and blessings for each of us? Again, the answer to both is a resounding “no.”

The solution is not found through Judy or Frank but those three guys – straw, tin, and a durable wagging tail. Brains, heart, and courage.

God does not dole out curses nor does He dole out blessings. What God does provide for each of us is a heart, critically thinking and discerning. An influencing heart full of compassion and caring. And all buttressed through the courage of our living faith.

Those are the divine gifts gifted for any of our lives. Who removes the false notions of God’s curtain? It’s our soul filled intuition. The movie has Toto pulling the curtain open but our great faith has the movie of the Holy Spirit – staring three of her wonderful seven gifts.

Now, do you think you can handle that?