Downton Abbey. I’ll just go straight out there and say I watched the Season 3 premiere tonight. For you Americans that have not been able to locate a website to play it and for Commonwealth-landers who haven’t been able to watch it, NO spoilers are coming. Though I’d like to go on and on about the power of our words in relation to families and so on through various scenes of tonight’s episode? I’m just realizing I shouldn’t now! So don’t worry.

 
For those of you are confused, Downton Abbey is a historical fiction TV series set (as of Season 3) in 1920’s England. It’s basically a romance/drama of a rich estate family and their servants. Imagine Pride and Prejudice, just later in time and more problems prolonged, as TV shows tend to do. I first witnessed it with my aunt and uncle earlier this year and had a grand old time catching up.
 
The tricky thing with these shows, however, is to find that balance of time-wasters and valuable lesson teachers. I mean, there were a few episodes where I wanted to throw up in my mouth and didn’t want to be ever connected with them. And I don’t think we were made to be glued to TV shows either. Especially not ones that focus on immorality and in short, the poop of human life.
 
However, I was pleasantly surprised by Downtown in the fact that when there was immorality (which I don’t recommend watching), you then saw the very real consequences of their actions. People did wrong, and it affected them. It wasn’t like your average American sitcom glorifying people sleeping together every episode, but instead? There was honour, decorum, and woah that age-old-but-incredibly-valuable character trait of self-control. Can we say three cheers for the fruits of the Holy Spirit? Hooray!
 
You could say, oh Kayla that’s just back then. All this drama for a wedding, yes. Yet if our hearts long for pure love stories with self-control as well as beauty? Surely period dramas have got something to say. I’m a writer, I adore English countryside and 20’s fashion, but more importantly, I’m a fan of good morals. Not because good character is the end result, though. I’m a fan because when we have things like goodness, kindness, and patience despite the raging storms of TV conflict, we are able to see love better. That self-sacrificial, do-anything however hard type love. Not the “entertain-me” counterfeit I’ve thought was love. 
 
Maybe I am biased to period dramas. I was curled up on the green lazy boy chair, micro-fleece blanket in hand, and it was so good to see the characters again. See the fancy china of upstairs and the crooked hallways of downstairs, the family dynamics and the servants interactions. But I don’t want to get lost in hype of a new TV show only to forget Him who made love. I’m so close to that! Oh, to remember the character traits I so desperately admire are not their own! They were designed by the TV show writers, yes, but Someone more. The honourable initiative, the forgiveness, the perseverance? Oh, who is it? It’s Jesus. Our cornerstone of faith, the one and only perfect Man, God in love on earth, here with us. Immanuel in that day- the 1920s- as well as now. What a faithful God. 
 
So can I not look to a TV show to fulfill my relational needs but instead…. “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” -Hebrews 12:2
 
Now that’s awesome. I love Him, and want to more. ooxx

Photo credit: here