The Corona Virus lock-down was not without some bright spots. One of them was that my husband Ernie and I got to watch Melissa Gilbert go from a young pig tailed girl to a grown married woman – complete with a baby – in just a few short months. Yes, we watched Little House on the Prairie. All 48 discs of the 9-session series, plus the specials and the movies. 170 hours of viewing.
My son Ryan had presented me with the boxed set for Christmas of 2018. Since then, I’d been able to watch an episode here and there, but the lock-down significantly ramped viewing time up. A long-time fan of the books, the TV series had always been one of my favorites as a kid. Watching it all again as a grown-up, some episodes were heartwarming, some were funny, and some were “how-inaccurate-can-you-get” moments. The historical content and cast were often at odds with real facts. But, most of that could be overlooked by die-heart fans.
There was one episode that stood out to me as being totally out of character with the nature of the Charles Ingalls portrayed on the small screen: Season 8, disc 3, episode 14. “The Legacy”. In this episode, a close, never-seen-before friend of our leading man dies. The dead man’s grown kids swoop in, sell the house, and cart the widow away from the homestead. Nothing is left of the deceased friend’s existence but a cemetery plot and Charles’ memories. Charles goes into a tailspin. What will happen when he himself dies? Will there be nothing left to show he existed?
At this point, Ernie and I were casting one another confused looks. What happened to the my-family-is-my-everything Charles who rarely got wrapped up in acknowledgements and fanfare? Who was this self-centered Michael Landon who had replaced him?
Well, that Charles appeared to have left the building. The Charles that remained felt the need to go to the big city and make his mark (literally, in the form of a trademark) in the furniture industry, while leaving his family behind in Walnut Grove. He finally comes to his senses and returns by the end of the episode, but not before we reached the conclusion long before Michael Landon did – your family is your legacy.
But during the episode, I’d been casting around in my own head as to what I would be leaving behind for my sons. Grandpa’s old guitar had been promised to our son Chris. Our piano would go to Ryan. Joe would get my comic book collection. That was pretty much it for worldly possessions. What if my book got published? That would be cool, but I was thinking a legacy is not so much what you leave for your kids, but what you’ve instilled inside them.
Strangely enough, Pastor Teddy preached on legacies the following Sunday when he quoted Mark 8: 35-36: “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”
There in lies the legacy: do you raise your kids to acquire worldly fame and goods or to achieve an eternal inheritance?
Lord, I thank You so much that my family’s legacy is found in You.
The Reluctant Firefly 