On this day in history, January 16th in 1973, the final episode of Bonanza aired after 440 episodes and 14 seasons.[1]
“Bonanza” was a show about a father and his three adult sons who lived, worked and managed a large Western ranch. The show was full of moral decisions, family unity and conflict, and Western rugged adventure. It was a family show about a family.
It is the second longest running Western behind Gunsmoke. [2] What was behind Bonanza’s longevity and popularity?
I would argue that a story about father and sons points to the greatest story of all time about our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus.
The show’s central theme connects to a deep and God-given desire in everyone to be loved, instructed, affirmed, and disciplined by a good father. Likewise, it connects with the God-given desire of every child to be loving, grateful, honoring, dutiful, and servant-hearted towards their father. This desire is epitomized in the biblical accounts of our Heavenly Father and His begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
In the last verses of the Old Testament, the prophet Malachi records the Lord saying, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers” (Mal. 4:5-6).
Today, we get to live in Malachi’s prophecy fulfilled because of Jesus’ work on the cross. Jesus, the perfect Son, took our place as sinful, ungrateful, and disobedient children and even endured the Father turning away from HIm (Mark 15) so that we who believe never have to know a day where the Father will turn away from us. Truly Christ enabled the “hearts of children to be turned” towards their Father.
It’s little surprise that Bonanza lasted 14 years. The story of father and children turning their hearts towards one another is a story we were never meant to tire of. Indeed for all eternity we will be praising the Father for His heart turned towards us; praising the Son for His work on the cross which provided the means for our adoption; and praising the Spirit that testifies of our true sonship.
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