Each month of the year has its special days on the calendar. January, of course, provides us with New Year’s Day, the NCAA Football CFP National Championship Title Game (Won this year, for the second straight time, I might add, by my beloved Georgia Bulldogs!), and Dr. Martin Luther King Day, to name but a few.
February too has its share of holidays. President’s Day comes to mind, as does Groundhog Day. But perhaps chief among this coming month’s emphases is Valentine’s Day. And this year, I am especially aware of this due to my precious wife.
She surprised me by giving me a special present Valentine’s Day present as the month of February prepared to unfold. She gave me the complete “THE WONDER YEARS” television program on DVD, and we began watching these together in chronological order last night. Suffice it to say that she made me very happy!
If you are unfamiliar with the (Emmy and Peabody among other) award winning show, which originally aired from January 31, 1988 until May 12, 1993, here’s the premise. Kevin Arnold, a teenager growing up in a suburban middle class family in the late 1960s and early 1970s, faces the ups and downs of life, including the daily challenges of home life, school life, social life, and love life while getting through, first, Junior High, and then, High School.
While I grew up on a rural Georgia farm and not in a suburban California subdivision where the show is set, I find I can completely relate to virtually every situation that the lead character, Kevin Arnold, faced as a child of the 60s and 70s. In this sense, every single episode is a trip down memory lane!
Outside of immediate family, the primary relationship young Kevin struggles with and through is the one involving the love of his life, Winnie Cooper. They get together, go steady, break up, and then make up and get back together in a never-ending roller coaster ride of adolescent love!
As we have watched the program together, I have been reminded of many a girlfriend I had back in the day during my formative years. But every time the show includes a slow-motion montage wherein Kevin sees Winnie and is swept off his feet yet again, I have also been reminded of the day I walked into a tenth grade Sunday School class and first laid eyes on the young lady who was destined to become my beautiful wife!
Spoiler alert! The highly praised series finale (which I first saw years ago) reveals that, in the end, Kevin and Winnie did not ultimately get together. Alas! He married a different girl. But I praise God that I did not suffer the same fate.
Rather, I had the blessing of winning and marrying the genuine love of my life. That girl I fell instantly in love with in the tenth grade later consented to marry me, to bear me three children, and then to stick it out with me through thick and thin.
I love “The Wonder Years”. But more than this, I love the woman who has given me forty plus years of wonder!
In the Old Testament Book of Proverbs (chapter 18, verse 22), the Bible tells us that “Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing.” I praise God that, in His perfect timing, He allowed me to find my precious and beautiful wife. As I tell her every opportunity I can that apart from the day I received Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior, she is the best thing that has ever happened to me in this world!
I wonder at that. Just as I do at all the years and blessings God has given the two of us together!
SOURCES:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wonder_Years;
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094582/.
SCRIPTURE:
https://biblehub.com/proverbs/18-22.htm.
February too has its share of holidays. President’s Day comes to mind, as does Groundhog Day. But perhaps chief among this coming month’s emphases is Valentine’s Day. And this year, I am especially aware of this due to my precious wife.
She surprised me by giving me a special present Valentine’s Day present as the month of February prepared to unfold. She gave me the complete “THE WONDER YEARS” television program on DVD, and we began watching these together in chronological order last night. Suffice it to say that she made me very happy!
If you are unfamiliar with the (Emmy and Peabody among other) award winning show, which originally aired from January 31, 1988 until May 12, 1993, here’s the premise. Kevin Arnold, a teenager growing up in a suburban middle class family in the late 1960s and early 1970s, faces the ups and downs of life, including the daily challenges of home life, school life, social life, and love life while getting through, first, Junior High, and then, High School.
While I grew up on a rural Georgia farm and not in a suburban California subdivision where the show is set, I find I can completely relate to virtually every situation that the lead character, Kevin Arnold, faced as a child of the 60s and 70s. In this sense, every single episode is a trip down memory lane!
Outside of immediate family, the primary relationship young Kevin struggles with and through is the one involving the love of his life, Winnie Cooper. They get together, go steady, break up, and then make up and get back together in a never-ending roller coaster ride of adolescent love!
As we have watched the program together, I have been reminded of many a girlfriend I had back in the day during my formative years. But every time the show includes a slow-motion montage wherein Kevin sees Winnie and is swept off his feet yet again, I have also been reminded of the day I walked into a tenth grade Sunday School class and first laid eyes on the young lady who was destined to become my beautiful wife!
Spoiler alert! The highly praised series finale (which I first saw years ago) reveals that, in the end, Kevin and Winnie did not ultimately get together. Alas! He married a different girl. But I praise God that I did not suffer the same fate.
Rather, I had the blessing of winning and marrying the genuine love of my life. That girl I fell instantly in love with in the tenth grade later consented to marry me, to bear me three children, and then to stick it out with me through thick and thin.
I love “The Wonder Years”. But more than this, I love the woman who has given me forty plus years of wonder!
In the Old Testament Book of Proverbs (chapter 18, verse 22), the Bible tells us that “Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing.” I praise God that, in His perfect timing, He allowed me to find my precious and beautiful wife. As I tell her every opportunity I can that apart from the day I received Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior, she is the best thing that has ever happened to me in this world!
I wonder at that. Just as I do at all the years and blessings God has given the two of us together!
SOURCES:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wonder_Years;
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094582/.
SCRIPTURE:
https://biblehub.com/proverbs/18-22.htm.