REFLECTIONS

The Waltons

Darkness fell on the old two-story home. Only moon glow illumined it as nocturnal sounds accentuated the quiet of night. From within, a warming glow from lamplights filtered softly through one shaded window downstairs and two up. One by one the lamps snuffed out. “Good night, Mom,” came a lovingly voice. “Good night, Dad,” another followed. “Good night, John-Boy.” And darkness fell as the scene softly faded.

The Waltons was the most popular TV show of its time, running from 1971–1981. The show featured the lives of a typical country family through the years of the Great Depression and World War II. John Walton ran a lumber mill to support his family; and at home he provided a level head during the various trials the family faced in each weekly episode. Olivia, the dedicated wife and mother, committed herself to make a warm comfortable home for her husband and their seven children. John Jr., called John-Boy by everyone, was the oldest of the children and the storyteller of those days of family life. He recounted the personal lives of everyone, but always included the ways they supported each other in times of need.

There were plenty of those stressful times in that Walton Mountain home but the family not only faced them together, they were bonded by them. It was hard to make ends meet during the depression, and the war introduced pain and suffering into their lives just as it did into every other American household. But the strongest bond was love.

The togetherness of the family through the economic challenges and the impact of war was the show’s greatest appeal. Perhaps it was the audience’s longing for family bonds that the show enjoyed such high ratings for so many years.

Today mobility, technology, and economic affluence tear at the strings that have held families together through the ages. They have placed distance between family members that have stretched those strings as never before; and we seem to find fewer examples like the Walton family that once represented the essence of family life.

Family is the basic unit that God created for the perpetuation of life. And though family bonds don’t come easily, through those bonds we teach our children and our children’s children to love each other and to fear the Lord.

It will be worth the effort. 

You are the light of the world,

Richard+

www.reflectingthesavior.org

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